Xenophobia
by JuliaKerns5
Summary: WARNING: Slash RLSB AU Sirius and James are only 18, but their names are already well known. As werewolf slayers. Killers of Evil Things and the world's heroes. FINAL CHAPTER IS UP. :D
1. Chapter 1

Sirius was a murderer.

A tough title, wasn't it? A macho title. Sirius felt that it fit him beyond anything else. If only his parents could see him now – no longer a weakling in the crowd, a rebel, _an alien_ – that did nothing that he was told and went his own way.

No, no, now he did what he was told.

And his parents were right. It gave him power above any power he had experienced. It was probably just the people that gave him his work in the first place. His work was a very powerful thing.

Sirius Black was a werewolf slayer.

Filthy half-breeds. Vampires, trolls, giants, werewolves, the whole lot of them. Inhuman. Abnormal. Different.

Yes, he had been different before. But he had been able to change that.

This was something that made him feel important. Almost as if he was saving the world. He was never much of a bloodthirsty person, but death had been something that Sirius had constantly been presented with when he was younger. The Black family was a funeral family. They knew too many weak or too powerful people. Which meant a lot of sitting around in black clothing in front of dead people.

It wasn't a particularly pleasant job, but it brought in money. And bloody good money.

James was with him, killing, slaying, murdering with him. And proud.

He had been taught when he was younger to kill parasites for the greater good. For the saving of another species. Because he believed that werewolves were definitely a different species. It was simply evolution. Killing one kind for the preserving of the safe kind. He was doing everyone a favor. It was surviving.

"Ministry turned in more than eight werewolves last night," James said gruffly, throwing a _Daily Prophet_ onto the table, "found them hiding underground somewhere in the outskirts of a forest near the Leaky Cauldron."

Sirius tutted. "We searched that place last week. What can Malfoy and Snape find there that we can't?"

James shrugged, reaching the dark kitchen of Grimmauld Place. "We're out of tea," he complained with a scowl, "but anyway. Snape has a nose like a bloodhound. And… and Malfoy works with him."

Sirius sighed, staring deeply into the empty cup he had drained hours ago.

"The Ministry is going to fire us if we don't bring in any half-breeds in soon." James told Sirius stonily.

"They don't expect anything from us, we except requests from them. If they like Saint Bernard Snape, then fine."

"Har har," James said, rolling his eyes, "I don't want to be eighteen and broke."

"Don't worry," Sirius told his cup, tracing the edge with his finger, "we'll go wolf hunting when it gets dark."

---

Remus was a werewolf.

It sounded gruesome, murderous, and aggressive. But it was also a strong title. Not exactly a good title to blurt out in front of any wizard that he found lounging in the Leaky Cauldron or in Hogwarts, but to other werewolves, it was a phrase of familiarity. They shared their suffering and pain. Made it… a little easier and a little rougher.

He had been taught when he had been younger by his now non-existent parents that he should never listen to other people. They didn't have any answers, any comfort, any realism, any truth. Wolfish instincts led his way.

Remus hid in an underground hole alone, never with any company or communication. But that was fine.

He was in constant danger of death, murder, or killing. But he was still alive because he was strong, innocent, and seemingly ordinary. Years ago, his family had warned him to act innocent. To be the victim. To act normal.

Even though he wasn't.

---

James polished his wands with his handkerchief when he saw the sun disappearing outside. Smiling at his shining wand, James grinned at his work and lit it proudly in the dark hallway.

"I see a light, and I sure hope it's a bathroom." Sirius said from the opposite side of the hall, treading up the stairs, and James jumped in surprise – sending the light beam onto Sirius defensively.

"Boo," Sirius said with a slight smirk, "You know, for a killer, you surprise me. You still flinch when you hear a voice in the darkness."

"I didn't know you where there."

"Are you polishing your wand again? You know, you don't need to show off your shiny, sparkly wand every single time we go werewolf hunting. C'mon." he bumped into James' shoulder deliberately, dragging his wrist along to the door.

"Where are we looking for them?" James asked quietly when they closed the creaking door behind them.

"Honeyduke's basement."

"Are you kidding me?" James replied.

"No," Sirius rolled his eyes in sarcasm, "God, James, you wanker, we're not going to candy shops! We're headed to the graveyard by Godric's Hollow."

"The last time we went there," James said, "a headless ghost tried to trip me."

"Correction. A headless ghost _did_ trip you."

"Shut up," James snapped, pocketing his wand and drawing his cloak around himself further.

"I'm not going by broom," Sirius said, shrugging, "apparition?"

"Yeah." James agreed, and in three seconds, both figures had been replaced by simple blackness.

---

Remus hadn't eaten in two days. Not a real meal, at least. He's eaten old berries and nuts that had rolled into his hole, and he'd drunken water from the creek nearby, but he hadn't had dinner in days. It felt like years to Remus.

It was like being stuck in an elevator shaft. Forever. As long as he would have this curse on him. The curse the full moon – turning destructive once every month. Being a werewolf. A lycanthrope. Being _abnormal_.

Remus chucked dirt angrily against the hard rock wall, and slumped into his bed of leaves, sighing. The fire he had built nearby was growing small and silent, and cold drafts were already wafting their way into Remus' home. He shivered, curled himself nearer to the fire, and threw another log to the flames to keep them going.

---

"Ouch!"

Sirius jabbed his wand into James' ribcage. "Shh!" he hissed irritably, knocking his knee against the other man's.

"There's a twig in my shoe!"

"Stop making so much noise!"

"You're the one who started making all the noise!"

"The werewolves are probably all perking up now because of you, James, shut up!"

"You shut up! And eat the twig in my shoe too!"

"Lame, Potter! Get your hand away from my nose!"

"Is that a challenge, Black?!"

"Dear lord, if the Ministry would see us now–"

"They would fire you!"

"Just get the damn twig out of your shoe so we can keep moving!"

James growled furiously, pulling the small piece of undergrowth out of his shoe before sending Sirius a murderous look.

"I hear a noise."

"That's your nasal nose, Sirius." James said scoffingly, rolling his eyes. Sirius shushed him again.

"It's coming from over there." the other man said quietly, and tip toed silently along the dirt, before kneeling by a distinctive hole in the soil big enough for a person or two to fit through.

"Did you find a vampire hole?"

"No," Sirius said silently, shaking his head, "Even better. Werewolf hole. You can tell by the claw marks around the opening."

"Bingo." James said, slapping Sirius on the shoulder as praise. "You first? Or should we call 'em out?"

"We'll bring the fight to them," he said. "There's only one or two."

"Excellent," James said back quietly, smiling wickedly, "I haven't had a real fight in years."

"Nonsense," Sirius scoffed, "we single-handedly fought that vampire a week ago."

The other man pushed his glasses back up onto his nose before gently crawling into the small hole made of damp soil.

"Let's go." James mouthed to his friend, before he slid in entirely but still keeping his footsteps slow and as quiet as a wasp walking on a windowpane.

"Do you hear something?" Sirius hissed cautiously into James' ear silently.

James shook his head. "Must be sleeping," he replied. "Good, I guess. Easier." He slipped further down the tunnel, before he stopped suddenly with his arm out alertfully to signal to Sirius to stop as well.

"He's asleep," James said as a warning, before smiling at the young werewolf curled up on the hard dirt floor. "Get the rope, Sirius."

Sirius nodded and reached into his back pocket to retrieve a strong rope. Kneeling down, he carefully grabbed the scarred wrist of the werewolf and brought the rope to it hurriedly.

However, he had not been careful enough, as the man woke with a start and at the sight of the two men kneeling by his dying fire, he backed up into the wall with wide eyes.

"H-How did you find me?" he stuttered, his voice hoarse and croaky.

"You're kind is not hard to find," Sirius said coldly, still holding the rope at the ready, while James drew his wand, "getting old-fashioned. Holes in the middle of graveyards? Where are the rest of them?"

The other man trembled slightly before shaking his head. "Rest of who?"

"Werewolves!" Sirius said loudly, "where are you hiding them?"

"I don't know any w-werewolves," he said, the man's tawny and somewhat dirty hair falling into his forehead messily.

"Paralyze him." Sirius ordered, cocking his head over to James.

The werewolf whimpered in fear, before holding his hand out defenselessly to stop James and Sirius.

"Please," he said desperately, "you've made a mistake."

However, when Sirius turned him around and roped his hands together, he did not try to struggle or bite like other werewolves did. He stayed calm and collected, if not desperately hopeful about not being taken away.

"Let's go." James commanded, lighting his wand and shining it out of the hole.

---

Remus had decided to stayed silent during his depart from his home.

Black and Potter had him by the wrists.

Thick ropes were digging into his skin, and he didn't bother to try to remove them. It would only waste his strength on trying to get immovable ropes to miraculously let go of their strong purchase on his palms. No. He was brave, and he would sit it out. He was innocent.

But Black and Potter probably didn't think so. They were murmuring away in icy tones behind him, being all discreet and quiet.

They weren't so great after all.

All of his life, Remus had heard of werewolf slayers. That they were supposed to rid the world of Evil Things. But it made sense to him now; the slayers were the ones who should be classified as Evil Things. They had no emotion. A heart of ice, stone, never melting or giving way. Never giving a damn about who they were even slaying. Brushing away all the murders they had made, a mistake or not. Remus thought that anyone who was so incredibly bloodthirsty and hungry for death was certainly not a very good person. They weren't such heroes after all.

Remus shivered subconsciously in the cool and chilly night air.

When he had been seventeen and parent-less, the danger started settling in. He lived with tough packs of other werewolves, who weren't comforting or soothing, just rough and at least _like him_. They understood his pain, and that was better than some consoling that didn't mean anything.

Living in underground holes and fearing nothing but being killed in your sleep by werewolf hunters or waking up chained to a chair with wands up your throat was a tough life. And when he was almost eighteen, he had heard of Black and Potter.

Hand-picked by the Ministry, top-notch, best in their class in Defense Against the Dark Arts, they were employed as vampire, werewolf, giant, and troll killers. _Murderers_.

Remus would never like such a burden of being a killer weighing on his shoulders.

But at least _they_ didn't have to _look_ over their shoulders every other second like he did in paranoia.

"Where are you taking me?" Remus managed to croak out hoarsely.

"Somewhere where you can't harm anyone anymore," Black answered coldly, "tell us. It'll make this entire thing easier. Who have you been killing?"

Remus bit down on his lip and swallowed. "I haven't killed anyone."

"Quiet." Potter hissed, and his wand was suddenly threatingly near Remus' chest.

Remus was surprising himself. How incredibly calm he was here, perhaps taking his last few steps and walking to his deathbed. And he knew it. Potter and Black were notorious for only one thing, and that was _killing_. Murdering. Slaying. And he was a werewolf. And Black and Potter killed werewolves. And yet here he was, not taking advantage of his wolf-qualities and giving Black a snipe across the neck with his teeth or even wrenching out of their grip with his powerful werewolf strength to slap Potter across the shin; scarring the other men for _life_.

Black grabbed hold of Remus' wrist tightly, and the tawny-haired man prepared himself for side-along-apparition.

---

Sirius threw the werewolf into a particularly creaky dining room chair when they had apparated into Grimmauld Place.

"All right now," Sirius said with a smirk, "let's make this simple. What's your name?"

"Lupin." the tawny-haired man responded.

"Lupin?" Sirius asked surprisingly, "like lupine?" he walked forward carefully and started scrutinizingly into his amber eyes. "like a canine. You really aren't human, aren't you?"

"I'm not a werewolf." Lupin replied.

"Liar," James spoke up loudly, "there were wolf claws all outside of your hole."

"And," Sirius said accusingly, and in one swipe he had ripped open Lupin's shirt. He pointed at his scars as the buttons flew off and ricocheted off the walls. Lupin winced. "these scars. _Purely_ werewolf scars. I've seen these for years now, Lupin."

"A werewolf attacked me!" Lupin said, still struggling slightly against his bonds.

"Yet you live in a hole." James said sharply, flicking the ropes onto the chair tightly with his wand.

The werewolf seemed to have run out of excuses. He sighed.

"You're a werewolf." Sirius accused, narrowing his eyes.

"And you kill werewolves," the man retorted calmly, leaning against the back of the chair.

James tilted his head to the side. "Yes," he said, furrowing his brows, "how do you know?"

Lupin laughed. "Black and Potter! Everyone knows who you are," he spat, "the famous slayers of evil things. But you know what? You're the evil ones. You're a _murderer_."

"I'll make sure to put those brave words on your tombstone when you die."

Lupin scowled. "You see yourself as some sort of humanitarian, don't you? A person who seems to do good… maybe even mean well… but with every murder, you _kill_ part of your heart."

Sirius whipped his wand out and held it right under Lupin's chin. "Another word out of you," he murmured, "and I'll fire."

Lupin quieted slightly, moving back against the wand pressing into his skin. "Fine," he said, "kill me."

Sirius had never heard such willingness from a werewolf to die. They fight, snarl, bite, and rip apart the ropes that were holding their wrists together. But here, Lupin was, simply closing his eyes and waiting for the kill.

No. Sirius wouldn't kill him. He would hand him into the Ministry, and they would take care of it.

"Get the Ministry, James," he muttered.

James promptly and silently left the scene, but Lupin called out one last plea.

"Please!" he shouted desperately, "how can I help it? How can you kill someone just because they're different? I didn't choose this! Just because they don't fit in, or because they don't have control over their bodies once a month, or because they don't look like you! This is _genocide_!"

Sirius staggered slightly in his steps, and felt a pang of guiltiness settling in his heart for the first time in a long time. It hadn't been recent that he felt guilty or ashamed for killing werewolf.

Sirius swallowed and closed his eyes.

"Get your wand, James," he said quietly, who nodded and flicked out his wand deftly.

"No!" Lupin screamed, finally fighting. He hadn't fought this entire time, but when the wand was finally down his chest and onto his heart, he fought like a real wolf did. Except that he was using his words.

James impatiently stopped and stared at the tawny-haired man.

"I'm still human!"

Sirius turned to face him. "No," he said, "no, you're not. You're a different kind. A different species. You're not a human."

"All werewolves are born human," Lupin retorted stubbornly.

"I'm not so sure about that."

"How about I bite you right now?" Lupin threatened, snarling and showing his teeth, "how would you explain to the Ministry that you're actually one of _them_ yourself? You _were_ human, weren't you?"

"Enough of this," Sirius said impatiently, and elbowed James in the ribcage to make him fire a killing curse, "you don't get the talkative werewolves very often."

"I'm harmless!" he said desperately, and strained fruitlessly against his bonds, "Please!"

"Sorry," James said coldly, and raised his wand.

Lupin closed his eyes, preparing himself for the wand that was going to blast his heart to a stop.

"Wait," he said suddenly, and then opened his eyes, "if… if I made you an offer, would you let me be?"

"Too late for offers!"

"I'll tell you where they are!" Lupin shouted. "They heard that slayers were coming, so they left our hole. I didn't want to come along."

Sirius lowered his wand slightly, eyebrows knitted together contemplatively. "If we let you live, you tell us where the other werewolves are?"

Lupin nodded. "All nine of them."

Nine werewolves. A_ feast_ for the Ministry. Sirius and James would make the front cover of the Daily Prophet the next morning for being such strong, brave, heroes. No one would have to know that they were hiding Lupin. Lupin would be killed by Sirius himself one night when he wouldn't be prepared. No more offers after this. Sirius was going to spare his life over Lupin's.

"No," Sirius said, shaking his head firmly, "you'll kill again. You're a werewolf, I'm a slayer, and I kill you. We don't work together."

"Wait, Sirius," James said sharply, and pushed down Sirius' wrist, "nine werewolves are better than one."

"Only if we kill them all!" the other man said loudly, his eyes wide, "Lupin is going to bring danger into our lives if we let him live."

James shook his head. "We spared his life. He'll spare us ours."

Sirius took a glance at Lupin, his eyes watering in hopefulness, and looked back at James. "This is my house, James. You can't keep… keep a wild _animal_ in here."

"We'll kill him later," the bespectacled boy told him quietly.

Every second was like a painful pound in his heart. This was _not_ the time to be a killer. To _think_ like a murderer. Spare a life. Spare _a werewolf_.

No. Sirius was not that cold.

"Fine," he said and turned to face Lupin, "he lives today, but that's only for now."


	2. Chapter 2

It was a well known fact that werewolves had the best sex. Werewolves, vampires, wizards, witches, slayers, all knew that. Werewolves weren't hard to turn on, and when they were, they were aggressive, rough, and dominant of their partners. The light-hearted wouldn't get a kick out of it, but any other witch or wizard would be responding eagerly, hungry for the greedy passion. Most people preferred pain and pleasure over simply pleasure, because it brought much more fire and need into sex.

And Remus of course, was a virgin.

"You can sleep here," Black said coldly, swinging upon a small door and coughing loudly as a cloud of dust wafted out. "it… it should be good enough."

Remus waved away the dust and peered into the tiny opening. "Is this a boiler cupboard?"

"Yes," Black said, a satisfied smile on his face, "my house-elf used to sleep here."

"What happened?" Remus asked icily, "did you kill him too because he wasn't human enough for you?"

"Watch your mouth. You know, I can still kill you," the black-haired man said threateningly.

Remus sighed, and climbed into the hole, watching gloomily as Black shut the front door and enclosed him in pure blackness.

---

"What did you do with the werewolf?" James asked downstairs, putting all of the cups and dirty plates into the sink.

"Eh," Sirius said revoltingly, "stuck him into the boiler cupboard in the basement."

"Isn't that where Kreacher used to live?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "but I'm not sticking a bloody werewolf in a guest room. He'll tear the wallpaper apart."

James chuckled, moving away from the counters and clapping Sirius on his shoulder.

"So what are we gonna do with him?" Sirius asked confusedly as James walked away from him.

"Who? Lupin?"

"Yes!"

"Er…" James said thoughtfully, "what were your thoughts?"

"After he tells us where the werewolves are, we kill him."

"Sounds simple enough. So ten werewolves in one week, huh?"

"The Ministry will be all over us," Sirius said, smirking cheekily. "We better find out where those werewolves are."

---

Remus woke in paranoia, wondering if he still had all of his limbs or if Black and Potter had come in here with their wands and magically removed them in his sleep. Black and Potter should be the paranoid ones, with a werewolf loose in their house, but instead he was the one waking up flushed and breathless from his dreams of being murdered by dark figures with large axes.

What rubbish.

Slayers didn't use _axes_, or _knives_, or even anything sharp and pointy. Just a wand, which technically was only a thin and narrow piece of wood with lots of sticky fingerprints on it messily. Remus had lost his wand when he was eleven and the Ministry had finally started tracking werewolves and murdering them off one at a time. An elimination of the species. First, people had cowered in fear, but then they had rejoiced in the thought of no more werewolves. No more danger.

Remus had had his wand snapped in half by a foot; a pure accident. Him and a cluster of other werewolves had been running from the Ministry in a dark forest – too dark – and Remus' wand had fallen out of his pocket. Within seconds another werewolf had broken it in half and all Remus could do was keeping moving determinedly and wipe the trickling sweat out of his forehead.

It would be very easy for the man to sneak out the boiler cupboard that smelled of rotten bread and other moldy things and simply slip up the stairs with a position that resembling a cheetah walking in the grass ready to pounce, and snap both Black's and Potter's wand in half. Even their necks, too. It was his werewolf instincts that also gave him spontaneous werewolf strength. His teeth, his nails, his hands.

It must have been about three in the morning, Remus reasoned, as he observed the shadow falling into the crack of the cupboard door. And then, the entire cupboard was flooded with light as Black ripped it open suddenly, holding his lit wand straight into Remus' face.

Remus shouted out, getting up from the floor and crouching into a more defensive position.

"Relax, Lupin," Black said coolly, "we just want to know where the werewolves are."

"Oh," Remus said softly, his mouth forming a perfect zero, "of course. Should I come with you, to show you?"

The other man laughed out loud. "We do not work with werewolves. They work _for_ us."

"Fine then." Remus responded calmly, and leaned back against the wall.

"Well?" Black demanded, and sighed impatiently when Remus stared at him blankly. "Where are they?!"

"Down by the forests by the World Cup Stadiums."

Black nodded satisfyingly.

"Don't sneak out of the cupboard and get food from the fridge." he yelled loudly, just before he slammed the door close and thundered away from the boiler cupboard.

Remus sighed.

Imprisonment.

This reminded him much of the times when he had werewolf… well, he couldn't call them friends, but acquaintances – who had been taken away by the Ministry. Skinned alive. Killed.

The boiler cupboard door was flimsy, and it was easy for Remus to hear Black and Potter slamming the door closed as they left the house.

Remus sighed, leaning against the wall and gently thudding his head against it over and over again, his mind spinning. He didn't remember when the full moon was anymore. That could be a problem.

Why didn't he just let Black and Potter kill him? Finish him off with no pain, but a flick of the wand and a flash of green. Anything was better than this moping about uselessly in a boiler cupboard.

Out of frustration, Remus banged his hand against the door angrily, and was temporarily surprised to see the door swinging open against the hinge wildly.

No lock…?

Black and Potter weren't as clever as they looked.

Remus smirked.

Looking over the door of the cupboard, he only felt the fresh air covering his ragged clothes like water on mud. He smiled at the freedom, before creeping up the stairs that creaked loudly when he stepped on the wood. But finally, as he crept along the dusty floor, he smiled to see an extremely messy bedroom.

That must be Black's room. Or Potter's.

Remus quickly rid himself of the excruciatingly dirty clothes and slipped into clean ones from the closet. Seeing that it was extremely dark and rather seductive clothing, Remus reasoned that it was Black's – but he wasn't judging. In just another moment, he checked how clean his entire appearance was. If he didn't want to be caught by another werewolf slayer, he needed to look as normal as he could.

Remus' hair was stringy and matted, but there wasn't time to fix it. Instead, he bolted out of the door, feeling the cool night air caressing his face. _Free_ again.

---

"Fucking werewolf." Sirius muttered, stuffing his hands inside his pockets. "Lying to us. There were no nine werewolves in those woods. C'mon, James, we can still grab a drink."

"I'm up for it." James said, shrugging, and drew his cloak around himself tightly. "Something warm and creamy, huh?"

"As long as it tastes spicy and goes down fast."

"Are you looking to get drunk?"

"Yes," Sirius answered truthfully, nodding, "bloody werewolves living in our house is driving me mad."

"And getting drunk is the answer?"

"The longer time I can spend in a bar swinging around aimlessly the less I have to spend at home with that beast." Sirius said, shuddering at the thought. "Probably gnawing through the lock right now."

James was silent for a moment, before squinting slightly and cocking his head at Sirius. "…lock?"

Sirius looked back at the other man, before swinging open the door to the Leaky Cauldron.

"Yeah. You locked the boiler cupboard door."

"Er… no I didn't." James corrected.

"I gave you a lock."

"Why would you give me a lock?" the other man asked exasperatedly. "We could have charmed the door shut!"

Sirius threw himself into a chair at the booth, James following him as he squeezed through the crowds. "Well, did you?"

"No!" James said.

"Why not?!"

"You didn't tell me too!"

"For heaven's sake, James!" Sirius said, "do you need to be told everything?"

"No!"

"What a great werewolf slayer you are!"

"Merlin's beard, I have experience with _killing_ werewolves, not imprisoning them!"

"That's basic magic! Locking, unlocking… it's a first year's work!"

"Shut up! You were the one last talking to him!"

"So? I told _you_ to lock him in the cupboard!"

"_Before_ you talked to him!" James yelled defensively.

Sirius jumped back out of his chair. "Then we have a loose werewolf in our house!"

---

If Remus wanted to be a normal person, he needed to become one. So going to bars and _not_ to holes in the ground was step number one. So, with an air of causality, he whistled nonchalantly and entered the Leaky Cauldron. Blares of conversation and talk immediately blew him back a few steps, before he entered cautiously.

Then, with a sinking feeling, something plummeted inside himself at one hundred miles an hour.

"Oh." Remus breathed.

Black and Potter were sitting down at the booth of the bar, seeming to have a rather heated conversation. Black was slamming his fist at the counter a lot and Potter was furrowing his eyebrows and sucking in his cheeks in fury.

_I guess they found about the nonexistent nine werewolves_. Remus thought guiltily, but quickly dispersed into the crowd, keeping an eye on Black and Potter.

They were getting up in a frenzy from the chairs, pushing through the wizards and witches, when Black bumped into a tall and pale man, who turned quickly at the pair of them. Remus edged closer. It looked like he recognized that man.

"Watch where you're going!"

"Watch where you're standing!" Black snapped impatiently, and attempted to push past the stranger. Remus squinted. No – no, it couldn't be –

"I would watch where you're putting the fault."

He edged closer. The paleness, the red glint, the sharp teeth –

A vampire. Of course.

Werewolves, of all people, knew how to recognize a vampire. And to _not_ piss them off.

"Fuck off!" Black hissed to the vampire, and snarled at the man.

Remus saw the vampire launch before Black did. He saw the sparkle of teeth as he pounced at the tender flesh on Black's neck.

Remus had moved before Black could.

He dashed forward in a spur of the moment, grabbed Black and Potter by the back of their collars and yanked them back. He heard their brief chokes of breathlessness as their collars dug into their throats before they stumbled back. Remus kept a firm grip on their shirts, before he saw that the vampire had hissed loudly, drawn his cloak around himself, and billowed through the people.

Black turned in surprise, hand on his neck, as he saw Remus innocently standing behind them, eyes fixed on the vampire.

"Lupin!" he cried in shock, and whipped his wand out. "we had locked you up!"

"No, we didn't," Potter corrected, and pushed away the other man's wand. "Did you escape?"

"He's wearing my clothes!" Black protested loudly, and pulled Remus down by the ear. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"You really aren't the great slayers everyone says you are," Remus said breathlessly, "that was a vampire."

---

"Great," Sirius said moodily, and slumped his shoulders. "a vampire."

"You slay vampires!" Lupin accused loudly, "yet you can't recognize one."

"Quite honestly, vampires are commonly found in ground holes and caves, not in well-known bars like the Leaky Cauldron," Sirius said, raking a hand through his hair somewhat shakily. He cast an uneasy glance at James, before turning angrily to Lupin, "and neither are werewolves. Aren't you supposed to be in the boiler cupboard at Grimmauld Place?"

"It wasn't locked." Lupin responded simply, and pursed his lips at the two black-haired men.

"So you felt the need to leave the cupboard and _steal my clothes_? What the hell is up with that, Lupin?"

"I was disguising myself, Black!"

"Not very well," Sirius said pointedly, and poked the side of his Lupin's shirt. "These clothes are too tight for you."

"As for you," Lupin retorted, "You're not fourteen anymore, Black."

"Yet you took those clothes that you think are fit for a fourteen year old."

"I wasn't watching what I was grabbing."

"You had _hours_, Lupin," Sirius reasoned logically, "we would have been busy slaying nine werewolves, _if there would have been any._"

"Oops," the werewolf said in an overly-innocent voice, "guess they must have moved."

Sirius grabbed Lupin's shirt roughly. "I've had enough of your shit. We're going back home, and you're going back into the boiler cupboard."

"Great," he said grumpily. "I save the men who would have killed me by a vampire and I'm again stuck with the boiler cupboard."

James grabbed him by his hair and pulled him forward towards the door. Lupin yelped out in pain before wriggling free from his grip.

"You're not an equal to us." Sirius said, shrugging on his cloak and opening the door for James and Lupin.

"I'm not an animal." Lupin responded breathlessly, and rubbed at his head where James had yanked at his hair.

"You _kill_ people."

"Yet I just saved you," Remus said bluntly, and stopped. James impatiently pushed his shoulder forward to the doorway, but he resisted. "No! I just saved two murderers! Isn't that human?"

"Maybe. But that's… that's…"

"Nothing harmful!" Lupin cut him off.

"What are you doing this for?!" Sirius demanded, and pulled him out of the bar determinedly, "to _not_ sleep in the boiler cupboard?!"

"To be treated normally!"

"Fine!" Sirius said exasperatedly. "you can sleep in the guest room. But no breakfast-in-bed, Lupin!"

---

It was not the fact that Remus could stretch his legs and actually move his arms. It was not the fact that Remus no longer had a lumpy and rather moldy blanket for warmth. It wasn't that here he wouldn't accidentally push his ankle into a shard of glass from a broken Black Family picture frame.

It was the principle that he was sleeping the guest room.

He was a filthy, beastly, and ghastly werewolf, yet he had persuaded Black and Potter to sleep in Black's former brother's room.

The walls were plastered in Slytherin green in comparison to the Gryffindor red that Black had had on his walls when Remus had sneaked in there to get clothes. There were lots of picture frames of Quidditch players in green robes and messy clothes thrown about. All Black had told him was that his brother was dead, so he could sleep in the deceased room.

Yes, so he wasn't exactly in first class hotels, but the "deceased room" surely beat the boiler cupboard where Black's repugnant houseelf had lived.

Remus snuggled further under the bed covers and smiled. As a werewolf, he felt for the first time in his life like he was… well… only half werewolf.

There was a soft knock on the door.

"Black? Potter?" Remus asked loudly, and sat up alertfully in the bed.

"It's Potter," a voice said through the door crack, just before it creaked open.

"What do you want?" Remus asked quietly.

"I'm…" Potter stuffed his pockets with his hands, "I'm just checking to make sure that you're still in here."

"You could have just knocked and waited for an answer," he reasoned logically.

"I wanted to tell you something," Potter sat down on the very edge of the bed. "I think I underestimated you a little bit. A little bit. I think."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah," he uncomfortably played with the hem of the covers, "just a bit. I mean, any other werewolf escapee that we just captured and threatened to slay would not have saved both Sirius' and my necks. I really owe you."

"Thanks," Remus said quietly, "because the Ministry would fire you if you'd had become a vampire. And kill you."

"No, that's not the point," Potter said hastily, "I would hate being a vampire. I would… would have Sirius slay me or something."

"That's a serious dedication," Remus said, "I'm still living my life, and I'm a werewolf. You need to open your eyes, Potter. The world is cruel. It's not divided into two parts, good and bad."

"I know!" he said heatedly. "What I'm trying to say is that werewolves aren't _that_ bad."

Remus was silent. "…but?"

Potter was silent before he reluctantly started talking.

"We haven't turned in a werewolf to the Ministry in weeks. We'll get fired if we don't bring one in soon."

"You need to kill me."

"Sort of," Potter said. "If we release you, some other slayer will catch you anyway."

"I… see." Remus agreed quietly.

"I'm sorry. Really."

Suddenly, light flooded into the room as Black opened the door and stared down at Potter and Remus.

"You're not killing him."

Potter turned shockingly to his friend. "You were the one who sent me up here to tell him this in the first place, Sirius–" he began.

"I know," Black said, "but he did save us from getting permanently scarred by a vampire. What kind of a vampire slayer can get bitten by a vampire? Our reputation would have been ruined."

"I know that! But the Ministry–" Potter began hurriedly.

"We can hide him out in the mountains. Malfoy or Snape or someone else won't find him there."

_Chapter Two:_

"_Look, there are some advantages to being a werewolf, right?" Sirius said._


	3. Chapter 3

It was finally confirmed.

It truly broke Sirius that he had to keep a werewolf in the house for another day or two before James and him could fly him out to the mountains. There, the only thing he would have to do is stay away from Giants.

"It'll be better than here," James reasoned to Lupin, sitting down at the dining room table and draping his fingers around his coffee cup.

"Where do I get food from?"

"You got food from a hole, didn't you?" Sirius barked from the kitchen, playing grumpily with his eggs.

"That was in Godric's Hollow! There are actually houses there!"

"Oh?" Sirius asked mockingly, "So you were a thief too?"

Lupin looked at him sternly. "What would you have done?"

James interrupted Sirius' to-come comment. "You won't have to live in dust and have moldy blankets like you do now when you're in the mountains."

"Yes… just no blankets."

"Would you prefer we hand you over to the Ministry to slay?" Sirius asked coldly. "I heard they use butcher knives on you there." he brandished his butter knife suggestively, sending Lupin a glare.

"Would you shut up, Sirius?" James said, and then turned back to Lupin, rolling his eyes, "He's… grumpy in the morning."

"I can see that." Lupin commented, and Sirius threw him a snarl.

"Don't mind him." James mumbled.

"Ooh, Jamsie boy, has the werewolf softened you up?" Sirius mocked.

"You said yourself yesterday, he saved our lives."

"Yeah!" Sirius said. "But you don't need to give him room service."

"I'm not! We're dropping him off in a bloody cave!"

"Where he belongs."

Lupin sighed at the table, and stood up. "If you'll excuse me."

---

It's not like he had anything to pack. But still, he had sauntered up to the dusty room labeled _Regulus's Room_ and had sat down on the covers of the forest green bed and tucked his knees up to his chest. He sighed, his hair falling down his forehead.

Was this worth it? Living in a cave with the constant fear of Giants and scraping around for food? Eating dirt and leaves? Looking for warmth in moss?

Remus buried his face in his knees.

He just wanted to be killed.

"_Lupin_," a loud voice called outside of the hall, before footsteps sauntered over to the door. A fist rapped on the door, "Lupin, are you in there?"

Black opened the door, and sighed when he saw the tawny-haired man resting on the bed.

"We're leaving for the cave."

"I'm not going," Remus said firmly, "you can kill me. You can have the Ministry slay me. Butcher knives and all."

Black sighed again and sat down at the edge of the bed. "Look, I'm not a very sentimental, sympathetic person. It's hard for me to really console someone, let alone a werewolf…?"

"I'm not asking for someone to console me."

"I know," Black snapped, "but this is pathetic. We're offering you your life."

"I don't want it, if I'm going to live it in a cave dying of hunger."

"Look, there are some advantages to being a werewolf, right?"

Remus looked up from his knees and cocked an eyebrow. "A werewolf slayer, saying that werewolves have advantages?"

Black ignored him. "You get to live in the outdoors, so it's like camping all the time! And you can eat all the meat you want and there's no annoying parent telling you to eat your vegetables! And…" Black waggled his eyebrows. "I heard that you have the best sex."

Remus stared at him disbelievingly, before tutting. "You heard right then."

"Isn't that a reason to stay alive?"

"No."

Black was silent. "Er… should I get my wand or something?" he offered. "Quick and painless?"

Remus was quiet. Murdered by a slayer? A werewolf slayer? Was this good principle for him? A good moral? He'd spent his life dodging slayers and keeping them at bay, and yet here he was, giving up his life in front of the mercy of a werewolf slayer. He could live in a dangerous and treacherous cave, never to be found, or… was there even an 'or' in his situation? He could… die… or pretend to be normal.

"Wait," he said. "You're sparing me my life, right?"

Black shrugged.

"I guess."

"Then just let me go. As a normal person."

"You'll live on the streets?"

Remus shook his head. "I'll find a job… somewhere. Live in a house like you are."

"You_will_ get yourself killed."

"Why do you care?"

Black tilted his head. "Not sure, actually," he confessed, "but that won't work, living on the streets."

"Then let me hide out here."

"And risk me murdered during the full moons? No thank you."

"I'll stay in the backyard! Nobody will notice me." Remus promised.

Black shook his head disbelievingly. "I… I'll consider it."

---

"I was talking to Remus earlier,"

Sirius turned rapidly to James, eyebrows furrowed. "For fun?"

"I guess you could say that," James said, shrugging. "he's a pretty cool guy."

"He's – _cool_? You're on a first name basis, _and_ he's_cool_?"

"What's so bad about that?" James responded, his eyebrows furrowed slightly.

Sirius blinked five times within the time span of a second. "James, you're a werewolf slayer. We don't make friends with vampires or giants or trolls or werewolves! We don't make friends with our… our prey!"

"He's not really prey anymore, considering that we're keeping him alive!" James shot back loudly.

"A big mistake, obviously!" Sirius retorted, and whipped his wand out of his pocket. "I'll go and finish him off right now!"

"That guy is broken!" James said in his defense, "yeah, he's a werewolf, but his life has been ruined by slayers like _us_! He's normal! He's just… been _forced_ to have a different lifestyle because some wolf bit him! Honestly now, Sirius! Have some compassion!"

Sirius shook his head furiously. "Men aren't broken!" he said. "they're dead inside!"

"Oh, so now Lupin is dead inside?"

"Yeah!" Sirius said firmly, "All werewolves are!"

"Well, if there is nothing left to kill, why kill him anyway?" James asked, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

"To save others."

"People who are dead inside need saving too."

---

Sirius was not a humanitarian. He didn't keep _animals_ in the backyard in cages or in display cases. He didn't keep them as pets. He killed them. The meaning of slay was to destroy – extinguish – kill with violence. Not 'grant freedom' or 'befriend'. James was being the exact opposite of a slayer. He was ruining his and Sirius' reputation as the youngest and best slayers in the Wizarding World.

"You're_not_ staying in the backyard." Sirius said firmly, leaning into the doorframe and staring down at Lupin coldly.

Lupin snapped his head up from his curled up position on the bed, and sighed.

"I should have known," he said broodingly. "tell me why." Lupin drew his knees up to his chest and attentively cocked his eyebrows.

"I – what?"

"I want to know why I can't stay in your backyard – pretending to be a normal person."

Sirius rolled his eyes, sighed, and slapped his head into his head.

"Fine!" he barked. "I don't like werewolves, all right? I loathe them! I hate vampires, ghouls, werewolves, ghosts, trolls, giants, the whole lot of you! I'm racist!"

Lupin narrowed his eyes slightly, getting up from the bed slowly and facing Sirius straight in the face.

"I knew it," he whispered satisfyingly. "you're a xenophobe."

"I – how can you make such an accusation?!"

"Because it's true!" Lupin said loudly, throwing his hands up into the air. "What you're doing isn't slaying The Evil, it's genocide! I could help you! I _could've_, at least!"

Sirius scoffed. "How could a werewolf help me??"

"Werewolves are known for ripping people apart, but how about werewolves and their good sides? They – they're great listeners–" Lupin started hopefully.

"I have James for that." Sirius interrupted crossly, putting his hands on his hips.

"They are excellent cooks!"

"I don't run a bloody cafeteria."

"We have excellent memories–"

Sirius rolled his eyes, and raised his eyebrows contemplatively at the werewolf sitting on the bed next to him.

"–and… and we have the best sex." Lupin rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, ignoring the eyes of the other man.

Sirius smiled slightly. "I have heard of that before," he said, and sat on the edge of the bed. "is it true?"

Lupin did nothing for a moment, before he sighed and shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I've never had sex."

"Why not? You're not exactly… bad looking, Lupin."

Lupin blushed, and his face snapped upwards to look at Sirius disbelievingly. "You always know the wrong thing to say, don't you?"

Sirius sneered. "Mountains it is then."

---

It's not like Remus enjoyed the company of a lethal killer, slayer, or murderer. He did not dine with vampires or go out clubbing with trolls. Just because he himself was considered dangerous, didn't mean that he delighted in speaking with the equally malignant.

Yet here he was, a werewolf and a slayer, having a calm dinner conversation at the kitchen table.

It could almost be a joke. A werewolf and a slayer are sitting at a table, then one leans over and kills the werewolf…

Except that this time, Remus didn't think that he would be slayed. Hopefully.

Potter groaned loudly as he drained whatever he had poured in his large mug, and 'ahhed' satisfyingly when he had finished. Remus eyed him uneasily, before staring into his own cup at the frothy and bubbling liquid – probably tangy alcohol – and pushed it away from him gently with a tip of a finger.

"You don't drink?" Potter asked, slurring slightly. His voice was husky and dry after having drunken the entire mug's contents.

Remus squirmed slightly in his seat, and shook his head no. "Not if I can help it," he said, "I don't think spice is something pleasant in… a drink."

"It's not spice!" Potter said back, his voice loud and drunken, "Just…_kick_. You werewolves kick too, right?"

Remus bit on his bottom lip and nodded uncomfortably. "I guess…? Do you?"

"Of course!" Potter replied, and his head tilted back off of the chair rest. "oh." He mumbled loftily, his head swaying about as it heaved itself back up again.

"That's… good to know," Remus said, and tapped on the table awkwardly. "do you and Black drink a lot?"

"No!" Potter responded indignantly, "we like to stay clean and sober, my friend, clean and sober… I don't like getting drunk at all, I always end up with my socks on the roof and my clothes… gone!" his eyes got particularly wide at the last comment, and his expression silently mouthed 'poof!'.

"Great…" Remus said. "I… I think I'm going to bed."

"But – but–" Potter said, gripping onto the werewolf's elbow and digging his nails into his skin. "the whiskey's not gone!"

"Share it with Black," Remus advised, smiling encouragingly, "he needs it."

---

James had offered him later on this evening a jug full of firewhiskey and rum, but Sirius had refused. Getting drunk around a werewolf was _not_ a good idea. Lupin could have already messed with James; Sirius wasn't quite sure if the steadily darkening bruise on his friend's forehead was from bumping into the wall of because Lupin had been attempting to knock him out.

By the end of the night, Sirius had ended up cleaning the dishes.

He despised washing the dishes.

His hands got pruny and his fingernails got scratchy and soapy would be under them for _days_… didn't he use to have house-elves to do this kind of things??

"Lupin!" Sirius called up the stairs loudly, rage radiating from his tone, "come and clean the dishes!"

But no one had come, the stairs hadn't creaked, and the doors hadn't opened. Lupin had perhaps not heard him, and when Sirius had went upstairs to sleep, Lupin was curled up in Regulus's bed tiredly.

_Lazy bastard,_ Sirius thought, tutting_, not even helping with the dishes. _

He walked into his room after heaving an inebriated James onto the couch. Sirius sighed as he closed the door and shut the curtains, falling against the window and closing his eyes exhaustingly.

Why was he keeping a bloody werewolf in the house? Why was he keeping him alive? Sirius' job was to _kill_ werewolves and Other Evil Things, not _protect _them.

He rubbed at his eyes before changing into his nightclothes, but when he had finally slipped into his bed, only Lupin's condescending and lecture-ish voice was stuck in his head. Echoing, too.

_You're a xenophobe._

_I could help you! I could've, at least!_

_Werewolves are known for ripping people apart, but how about werewolves and their good sides?_

_A werewolf slayer, saying that werewolves have advantages?_

_What you're doing isn't slaying The Evil, it's genocide!_

_You always know the wrong thing to say, don't you?_

_And we have the best sex._

Sirius groaned out loud, pounding the covers angrily and burying his face into his pillow.

He wasn't a bad person. He wasn't a villain. He wasn't a bloody xenophobe. He just knew right from wrong. And _no one_ – especially not a werewolf – could help Sirius Black. He didn't need it. Werewolves were not heroes. They were destructive, unnatural, threatening creatures that could kill Sirius in one swipe of the teeth.

Sirius shuddered.

_Fuck you, Lupin._

He threw the covers off of himself, throwing on a bathrobe and murmuring furiously all the way to Regulus's old room.

Sirius tipped the door open with his thumb, before he stuffed his hands back into his pockets. No wand, no light today. Just a heavy (and well-needed lecture) talk with Lupin about right and wrong.

At approximately twelve in the morning.

"Fuck you, Lupin." Sirius hissed from the doorway, and immediately Lupin sprang up in his bed and sighed in relief by just seeing Sirius' silhouette in by the hallway.

"You know, werewolves aren't supposed to sigh in relief when they see slayers standing nearby."

"Are you drunk, Black?" Lupin accused suspiciously from his bed.

Sirius made an indignant noise. "No!" he said. "No, I am not! Alcohol is… too far below my temptation for me to fall underneath it!"

"Yet you have empty bottles of firewhiskey rolling about under your bed in your room, and your toothbrush reeks of butterbeer." Lupin said from the bed.

"Are you stalking me? Snooping through my stuff?" Sirius asked with furrowed brows. "Or better yet, how do you know how butterbeer smells?"

Lupin shrugged. "Some of the other werewolves had sneaked it out of Diagon Alley pubs. They would stink of it."

"How do you… know so much?" Sirius asked, forming his words carefully.

Sirius knew that Lupin was smiling in the darkness. "Would you believe me if I told you that it's a werewolf quality?"

"Har har," he said, "I'm not stupid, Lupin."

"Too late to prove yourself of that," Lupin retorted, "I've already realized that you are incredibly thick."

Sirius moved to Lupin's bed threateningly, but stopped halfway there, clenching his teeth. _Self-control, Sirius_…

"What do you want, Black?"

Sirius clapped a hand to the back of his head, scratching his hair awkwardly. "I… I couldn't sleep."

He could hear Lupin choke out a suppressed laugh. "Oh," he said. "I'm sorry. Do you want to come into the bed so I can console the poor, helpless slayer?"

Sirius sent a glare in the spot where he hoped was Lupin's eclipsed figure.

"Not like that," he muttered, "you're driving me crazy."

Lupin wrinkled up his nose. "Right back at you. I constantly expect you to be hovering over with a knife, quite honestly, and you're not making my paranoia any better with all these nighttime visits."

"Stop it!" Sirius barked cantankerously, his eyes flashing and nostrils flaring, "Stop – being – witty! All night long, the only thing I've been hearing is your retorts blaring in my head! You aren't good listeners, you probably hate cooking, your photographic memories are useless, and you _don't_ have the best sex!"

There was silence from Lupin for a moment, before Sirius heard slight shifting of the mattress.

"All right then," Lupin said calmly. "you have now accused me of being futile. What _else_ do you want?"

Sirius stopped, his chest heaving breathlessly. "I." he said awkwardly. "I… think that was all."

"All right then," Lupin said, sighing, "can I go back to sleep now?"

Sirius nodded, wondering briefly why he had even come from his bed to tell Lupin off for… nothing…? He walked towards the doorway, before he stopped and turned his head around to face the werewolf.

"Er – Lupin?" he said, and heard a tiny 'mm?' in response. "I… I didn't mean it like that."

"Of course you did," Lupin responded. "and it doesn't matter. Are you sure you're not drunk?"

"You know," Sirius said slowly, "I'm not sure if I am or not anymore."

Lupin chuckled. "You probably are," he said, brushing off the topic light-heartedly, "but you probably still meant what you said."

Sirius could hear Lupin moving back into a comfortable position on the mattress to sleep.

"Wait," he called, and the tawny-haired man sighed loudly.

"What now, Black?"

"Um," Sirius said, and loomed over Lupin's bed for a moment. "Is it true? That… that werewolves have the best sex?"

"I have never found someone willing to try with me."

"Oh. Good. I mean – shame, really. No, I mean – _fuck_. Not good. I'll… be going now."

"Black?"

Sirius turned, eying Lupin warily.

"You know, I can't help you, unless you learn to trust me."

"I… I know." Sirius muttered.

"Fine," Lupin replied. "Goodnight, Black."

And Sirius murmured something incoherent back, uncomfortably stumbling back into his bed thinking about nothing but werewolves. Werewolf sex.

"Oh shit."


	4. Chapter 4

"It's not like we're asking much of you, Mr. Black, but you haven't turned in a werewolf in _weeks_."

"I realize that," he said, "but James is currently ill and I can't work alone."

The Minister peered down at him scrutinizingly and tutted. "Part of this job is being able to work alone, Mr. Black."

Sirius rolled his eyes at the ceiling and stared hard into the Minister's eyes that were boring into his. "We've been trying, sir," he said, "we were out at the Godric's Hollow cemetery not long ago."

The Minister pushed his glasses up his nose and sighed. "It's not about the effort, Mr. Black, but the results. This fruitless trying of yours obviously means that you are not qualified to be a slayer!"

Sirius rapped his fingertips against the tip of his armrests. "Does it occur to you, Minister," he began coldly. "that we are eliminating werewolves as a species? It gets hard to bring in werewolves when most of them have been killed. Do you expect this to be a continuous act?"

The man stood up furiously from his chair. "Right now, Black, this is not the issue! There are still hundreds of vampires, werewolves, and giants out in our world at the moment, and if we don't stop them now, they'll breed their asses into numbers that will overpopulate the wizard as a human!"

"You don't find werewolves wandering in pubs, Minister," Sirius bitterly responded, "not usually, at least." he murmured as an afterthought.

"Severus and Lucius have brought in more than a dozen werewolves and two vampires this past week."

"Good for them," Sirius mocked teasingly, and sighed.

"Do you want to be fired, Mr. Black?"

"No."

"Do you want to be stuck working with an efficient partner, such as Mr. Snape?"

"No!"

"Then I suggest," the Minister said, rage shaking his chin. "that you find a werewolf within the week!"

With that, he slammed his fist on the counter, and flared his nostrils dangerously.

"Is that understand, Black?!" he asked furiously.

"Yes, sir." Sirius responded emptily, and looked at his knees.

---

"How did it go?" James asked anxiously, spread out on the couch with a damp towel on his forehead and his eyes half-lidded.

"We're going to get fired if we don't bring Lupin in, James."

"What?!" James shouted, and then immediately groaned, teeth gritted.

"Did you take something for your hangover, mate?" Sirius asked sympathetically, standing by the couch as he took off his coat.

"Sort of," James said quietly, rubbing at his temples, "Lupin made me something for it."

Sirius' eyes temporarily popped out of their sockets, as it seemed, as Sirius screamed out loud: "LUPIN!" he roared, and stomped up the stairs. He whipped around to face James. "He could've poisoned you, James!"

"I feel _better, _Sirius!"

"Rubbish, that's just the hangover talking!" Sirius brushed off loudly, and knocked feverishly on Regulus's door. "_LUPIN!_"

Lupin opened the door after a moment, looking quite windswept.

"What is so incredibly urgent, Black?" he asked breathlessly, smoothing back his hair.

"What did you give James?" Sirius barked, and grabbed Lupin by the front of his shirt.

"Nothing harmful!" Lupin said, holding up his defensivelessly. "Just a cure for hangovers. I had to deal with it quite often when I was living with werewolves."

"Let him go, Sirius." James slurred from downstairs, sighing.

Sirius jerked Lupin free, and the werewolf immediately started smoothing out the wrinkles on his shirt.

"Well, anyway," Sirius said, panting slightly, "now that you're here, you might as well know."

Lupin cocked a brow attentively.

"The Ministry is going to terminate us if we don't bring in werewolves soon," Sirius said, biting his lip. "so either we're bringing you in, or you help us look for werewolves."

"You've got to be fucking with me." Lupin groaned, and shook his head, "No. I'm not going to hunt my own people, Black."

Sirius faked a long, breathy sigh, and then brandished his wand casually. His eyes on Lupin, he swept a speck of dust off of the tip of his wand. Lupin's shoulders slumped as he sighed.

"What do you expect me to do?" Lupin asked helplessly. "I don't know where they are!"

---

Sirius sat broodingly on his bed, hair sprawled on the pillow that was propped up by the headrest.

Killing someone was what Sirius did. But when it came to telling someone that they had to die just so their slayer could keep his job, it was not his forte. He wasn't _that_ heartless.

At least, he thought.

Ever since bloody werewolf Lupin had arrived at the house, that thought had been swimming in his head and his sureness had turned into doubt. Was he a terrible person? Did he have a heart of stone? Was his brain needy for death, and his soul bloodthirsty?

"Black, please stop sulking in there."

Sirius scrambled off of the couch and straightened himself up, brushing his hair behind his ear and pretending to be nonchalantly staring out the window.

"Er – come in, Lupin."

Lupin had already come in, though, and he was standing innocently by the doorframe, staring after Sirius understandingly.

Sirius wished he would stop being so bloody considerate.

"Why are you in here?"

"You helped me the other day when I was upset," Lupin said, shrugging, "I thought I could… you know. Return the favor."

"I'm not… I mean, I'm not – fine, I am upset!" Sirius finally said exasperatedly, throwing his hands up.

Lupin took a tentative step forward. "Is it because… of something I did?"

Sirius stole a glance at the werewolf from the corner of his eye, but shook his head silently. "I wish I could blame you, but… it wouldn't be right."

"You could… pretend that it was my fault, would that make it better?" Lupin offered.

"No," he said, "I just need a solution. I… we're going to get fired if we don't bring in a werewolf or a vampire to the Ministry." Sirius sighed and buried his face in his hands.

"I would help you find a vampire," he said, "but I don't have a wand."

Sirius cocked his eyebrows. "What? Why?"

"It… it was destroyed a few years ago."

The black-haired man narrowed his eyes crossly and stood up from his spot on the windowsill. "Did the Ministry snap it?"

Lupin shook his head, "We were on the run, and… a werewolf stepped on it. It was too dark, and too dangerous to stop and find it."

Sirius felt something inside of him drop at a speed that shouldn't be allowed. He swallowed uncomfortably. "I – I'm sorry, Lupin… god, I don't even know your name."

Lupin tilted his head slightly, his teeth biting his bottom lip. "My name is Lupin," he said, "you know that."

"_No_, your first name."

"Oh. Remus," he said quietly, "my name is Remus."

---

Sirius had always imagined that he would be tougher than Lupin. Yes, Lupin had to endure multiply hours of excruciating pain once a month and deal with his muscles distorting into one's of a creatures, but Sirius was a killer. He was manly. He was brave enough to murder.

But now that he thought about it, Lupin was the strong one. He was not only courageous, but he was emotionally and physically sturdy enough to endure slayers and death knocking on his door almost every night. Constant paranoia, having to grasp at survival, and fight back with the dwindling strength…

That was true toughness. That was being powerful. That was being valiant. Being heroic. Lupin was a bloody hero, whether Sirius liked it or not.

Sirius was a killer.

He faced it, he wasn't tough. The moment he would stop murdering and causing death, he wouldn't be tough anymore. He hid behind his shield – his wand – that was his only strength. His heartless self.

"Black," Lupin said softly from the doorframe, and Sirius turned abruptly, almost oblivious to the fact that there had been tears forming at the corner of his eyes. Why was Lupin constantly following him and trying to 'help him'? "are you all right now?"

"Uh – yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Sirius stuttered, and swallowed audibly.

"I don't know what to say," Lupin said consolingly, and he shrugged sadly by the door. "I… I always thought that you had been… incapable of emotion. Like a robot. I always thought you'd be tough."

"Yeah," Sirius responded, nodding blindly. "I'm the tough one."

"I'm sorry for constantly making your life as a slayer… harder. Yes, your job isn't very sensible to me, but I don't want you to lose it."

"I… thanks," he replied quietly. "I'm sorry for making your life shit too."

Lupin laughed silently, staring at the floor with a crimson blush creeping into his face.

"When I was younger," he started. "I always thought I would end up with the perfect life. Just like any other hopeful boy would. I wanted to be the guy every other guy would be scared to lose, the guy that you couldn't walk away from, the guy you couldn't fall asleep without, the guy you had to hear last before you said goodbye, the guy that you couldn't live without. I… I obviously never became that guy."

Sirius ignored the guilty lurch of his stomach as his brain subconsciously rewound Lupin's words at metro speed.

"Wait – the guy every other _guy_ would be scared to lose?" he asked with furrowed brows.

"Yeah," Lupin said, "why, what?"

"You – you're gay?"

"Homosexual is the term I prefer," Lupin corrected, chuckling, "_gay_ sounds so… girly, honestly. I'm no girl, Black."

"I… I see that."

Lupin laughed some more, oblivious to the fact that Sirius had been getting growing tense in the corner of the room.

"Anyway," he said, smiling gently, "I never became that boy. But it doesn't seem like you did either."

This time, Sirius didn't try to jump Lupin's throat, instead he looked at the floor. Lupin seemed to make him all… _sensitive_ every time he talked to him.

"I could have."

"I'm sure," Lupin said, "thank you for not killing me."

Those words were obviously thankful, grateful words of possible persuasion and pleading to stay alive, but Sirius saw it as a stab in the heart. For someone to have to _thank_ him to simply keep living was pathetic. How could he have ever slayed werewolves? They weren't that destructive. They weren't that dangerous. They were everything Lupin had told him they were. Good listeners with excellent memories, good cooks, and…

"So you've never had sex?" Sirius babbled helplessly, just as Lupin was walking out of his room. Remus turned, his cheeks scarlet, as he nodded uneasily.

"Not with a girl? Not with… a boy?"

Lupin shook his head. "A girl? Definitely not, Black. I've been around nothing but brutal, _male_ werewolf packs. And werewolves aren't looking for sex with the youngest, weakest werewolf. Like… like I was."

Sirius blurted something out. "I would have sex with you."

Besides the fact that Lupin's eyes had grown almost as wide as saucers, he had chortled uncomfortably and answered with an extremely humiliating and embarrassing answer.

With Sirius' insides shouting at him for saying such a thick, daft thing, he awaited Lupin's words awkwardly. He _did not_ just tell Lupin the werewolf that he would have sex with him. He didn't_sleep _with werewolves. Yes, just because he hadn't been getting action in a while didn't mean that he was so incredibly desperate that he would sleep with a _werewolf_. His prey. That's not evolution.

He wasn't a _slut_.

"Something tells me that you're no virgin."

"I…" but before Sirius could control his reddening face, Lupin was smirking and attempting to snicker a laugh.

"You don't think that would be weird? Slayer with werewolf?"

"It… it would make for fun roleplaying in bed."

Remus opened his mouth, before he closed it again awkwardly. "You have the dirtiest mind I have ever come across, Black."

Sirius nodded bluntly, stuttering slightly, as he raked a hand through his forehead. "Never mind all of that. _All of that_. It's just… just that I haven't had sex in a long time."

Lupin nodded. "Join the club, Black."

As the werewolf vanished out of Sirius' room, only one thought raced through the black-haired man's mind.

"Bloody hell!" he shouted, slumping down to the bed with his chest heaving.

He did _not_ just suggest to Lupin that he was going to sleep with him. He did _not_ just admit that he hadn't had action in since he'd been in school. He did _not_ just make the statement to Lupin that he was a slut.

Well… perhaps he did.

---

Of all the things he had imagined sex would be, Remus had never imagined it to be like this.

He was still sweating, still panting, but he assumed that Black was already asleep next to him. Black had seemed to fall asleep right afterwards, turn his back to Remus at the very, very edge of the bed, and keep his breathing short.

It's not like they were friends, lovers, partners, boyfriends, soulmates, anything even 'after' acquaintances. They had just slept together. They weren't friends like Black and Potter were. They were… sex buddies. And that was certainly under the acquaintance level on Remus' socializing skill.

And he knew that Black had enjoyed it too, considering that he had been moaning almost the entire time. He definitely craved hunger, greed, passion, and aggression over soft, gentle, and slow lovers. And frankly, Remus enjoyed being on the top.

Well, it did seem like it was true.

Werewolves had the best sex.

_Chapter 5: _

_Of all the things Sirius had imagined hell to look like, he had never imagined it to be like this._


	5. Chapter 5

Sirius took a long, breathy, and tense sigh.

Of all the things he had imagined hell to look like, he had never imagined it to look like this. Bedsheets, werewolves, sunshine bursting through windows, and an aroma that Sirius knew only too well.

Yes, yes, he probably was a slut.

Even in hell.

Sirius had always known that he was going to hell. When he had been younger, he had ignored his parent's wishes and rebelled against them. He had run away from home. He had become a killer. A murderer. All those sins. Greed, wrath, pride, envy, and worst of all, lust. Lust for a werewolf.

Anyone that terrible would clearly go to hell.

Which was probably why he was here in the first place.

He looked over and saw that Lupin's head was halfway on the pillow, half of it slumping languidly onto the mattress, causing the tips of his hair to tickle Sirius' shoulders.

Sirius gulped.

Then, Lupin groaned, turned over, and bumped into Sirius' arm as he readjusted. The back of his knee brushed Sirius' leg.

Sirius closed his eyes and swallowed.

He regretted running away from home, remembering the time when he was stranded on the streets for a little bit before he made it to James' house. He would never have taken it back, though.

He regretted being such a brutal killer. Murdering helpless victims, half of his killing just plain mistakes… Sirius was sure that from the moment his wand killed the first werewolf, he would never go back… he would always be cold-blooded from them on. But still, it brought in cash – mounds of gold, that was – and he wouldn't have taken that away if he could travel back in time.

However, of all the stupid things Sirius could have done, the one which he regretted the most was sleeping with Remus Lupin, Werewolf-Of-The-House. And he _would_ go back to erase that memory from his brain.

Sirius' hand grazed down onto his skin, wisping at the tip of his flesh to scan blindly for marks… what if Lupin had bit him? Yes, it could have been in the heat of the moment, but still – while Lupin may have not been transformed, it still meant that Sirius could be scarred to life with some… werewolfish traits.

But his skin was smooth, and Sirius let out a breath of relief. Instantly, Lupin turned once more, only to bury his face in Sirius' neck for warmth and wrap his arms around the black-haired man's waist.

Sirius tensed up, his shoulders locking together.

The deep breathing of Lupin was blowing into his shoulder blade, but it didn't bother Sirius all too much.

It was finally sinking in, that Lupin, dangerous and all, werewolf and all, creature and all, was harmless and had possibly never killed a person. Accidentally, or not.

They had never kissed last night.

It had been pure roughness, tumbling and growling, there was no sensitivity. Kissing was something that couples did. People in relationships did. Lovers. Boyfriends and girlfriends. But _not_ sex buddies.

That's all they were. They had slept together, but they hadn't kissed. They weren't couples.

That was for sure.

Sirius was about to lift up the sheets and tread downstairs and pretend like nothing ever happened – because James would _not_ hear about this, that's for sure – when he felt Lupin move over again. This time, he hooked his leg over Sirius' knee and kept it there.

Sirius couldn't help a moan escaping his lips along with a strangled sigh as he stared down at the werewolf next to him.

And then as Lupin's knee subconsciously pressed up Sirius' thigh, Sirius realized painstakingly late that they both were still naked.

---

When Remus awoke, there was a fairly warm patch of mattress next to him, but there was no Black.

A slow, steady, and settling feeling started forming in the bottom of his stomach, like rocks and pebbles and everything else you could stuff down there.

Remus groaned, and covered his face with his hands as he raked his fingers into his stringy, tawny hair that he hadn't washed in days. His lips emitted a noise that was a bit like a moan and a bit like a sigh, but all in all, it was not a sound of achievement.

What had he done?

His fingers brushed over the mattress and the inside of the blanket, feeling a warm piece of cloth. He sank his hand into that spot, and sighed.

Remus curled further into Regulus's blanket.

Anyway.

It's not like he should be ashamed.

Black had joined _him_, after all.

---

Sirius tousled his own hair, groaning loudly as he slumbered down the stairs with only blue pajama pants on as attire.

"'Morning." he greeted to James groggily.

James raised an eyebrow at his friend, before he retrieved his toast from the kitchen and bit from the corner of it. Crumbs fell onto the tiles as James' teeth crunched into the bread.

"What took you so long? It's almost _eleven_," James reprimanded, pouring himself orange juice. "as a matter of fact, Lupin is up late too. I should wake him."

"No!" Sirius shouted, jumping out of the chair. He didn't want James to catch Lupin in Regulus's bed, naked, with Sirius' trousers and other clothing garments sprawled around the floor. "I… I mean, I'll go and get him. You can… you can eat your toast, okay?"

James stopped in mid-step, but nodded uneasily as Sirius hurried up the stairs.

---

Remus had lazily fallen asleep again. It had been a long night, with all of the… moving around and unexpected action, besides from his usual calm sleep.

When he awoke the second time, Black was looming over him.

Remus shouted out in alarm, Black echoing him, as they both scrambled up in surprise.

"Dear god, Black," Remus puffed breathlessly, "what do you think you're doing hovering over my bed like that?"

"Waking you up," Black said back defensively. "I was going to, at least."

It was not hard for both of them to become extremely uncomfortable, with Black wearing a pair of too loose pajama bottoms and Remus having become increasingly entangled in the sheets so only a bit of his naked self was covered. Remus snatched the blanket back up and tugged it up around him, flushing deeply.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

But Black remained standing there, staring impolitely at Remus' still half-naked form.

"I, um," he muttered, "I guess I should… get going so you can get dressed. We have toast for breakfast."

The wolf part of Remus wanted to grab hold of Black's shoulders and pull him back into bed, but then when Remus cleared his head, he felt that desire fading away.

Slowly.

"Er – unless you want to stay…?"

Black stared at Remus like he had never seen anyone quite like him before, and the werewolf saw him lick his lips nervously.

"I'll come back tonight," he mumbled. "after James is asleep."

---

Sirius knew how to treat girls the morning after a drunken night. He would give them one of four excuses; he was terribly ill with a snake wound – he was gay – he was once a Death Eater – or he would 'visit her later' when he never ever would.

But they would buy it all.

Unfortunately, Lupin was too smart for that. He couldn't just approach him and fake disease, pretend to be gay, a death eater, or visit him later.

Lupin was around him enough to see if he was ill, and he would have seen enough skin to see a snake bite a night ago.

He had _proved_ to Lupin that he was obviously gay already.

Lupin had seen his burgundy and yellow wallpapers in contrast to his brother's Slytherin shrine, so it was clear who had become the Death Eater.

And Lupin lived in the same house as he did, so there was no escaping 'visiting him later'.

Sirius punched the pillow in his room before he growled angrily and changed into something suitable for the day.

He had discovered something far, far more annoying than death.

"Erm… don't you want breakfast?" James crooned through the door, his voice muffled by the thick wood.

"I don't want your eggs, James," Sirius complained rudely. "I never told you, but they're rubbery and floppy."

James whistled through the door crack, before he attempted to open the door. The knob rattled, but it was fruitless. James pounded on the door.

"What bit your ass?" he asked. "my eggs are very gourmet."

Sirius snorted.

"Don't you snort at me!" James admonished. He rattled at the door again. "now unlock the door before I get a hairpin."

"Since when have you been in the possession of hair pins?"

"Since Evans said my hair was too messy.

"That was in _school_, James, we're now slayers." Sirius scoffed.

"Still," James said quietly. "It's a nice memory. Now stop being such a stubborn bastard and let me in."

Sirius sighed deeply in response, and James echoed it.

The black-haired man heard footsteps gently thudding on the carpet, and for a moment he thought that James was going away, but then he realized that Lupin was joining him at the door. Sirius smacked his forehead into his hands.

"What's going on here?" Lupin's soft voice asked James. It wafted through the door quietly.

"Sirius won't open the door."

"Oh," Lupin replied, and then knocked on the door.

"What!" Sirius barked loudly.

"Will you open the door?" Lupin asked tenderly.

"No!"

"Okay. That's fine," Lupin responded, and Sirius suspiciously raised an eyebrow.

"Lupin?" he called.

"James," the werewolf started, his voice not so loud as he was no longer speaking through the crack of the door, "last night, Sirius left his bed and–"

"I'm coming!" Sirius called, panicking slightly as he scrambled off of the bed and fumbled with the lock. He opened the door swiftly, the wind blowing his hair out of his face. Lupin was standing there with a satisfied smile.

"Thanks for opening the door," he said, and Sirius snarled, turning to James.

James awkwardly handed Sirius a plate full of scrambled eggs and toast.

"Great," Sirius whined, "there's no juice, and the eggs are now cold."

"Who cares?" James sneered. "they're _rubbery_ anyway." he thrust the glass of water he was holding in his other hand into Sirius' chest.

"Stop huffing." Sirius chastised firmly, and put the plate down on his end table. "and go away."

---

Black was avoiding him. He stayed locked up in his room, probably munching broodingly on chocolate frogs, perhaps regretting the previous night.

Remus wasn't regretting it.

Yes, it had been Black, the infamous slayer of Evil Things, but still, it had been good.

Very good.

Remus smiled satisfyingly to himself, his eyelids drooping slightly as he poked randomly sized holes into his pancake.

"Er… Remus? Hello??"

Remus snapped his head up abruptly; his eyes meeting with James' dull brown ones. "Oh, uhm, sorry."

"I don't know what's going on here," James began perplexedly. "but Sirius asked me to tell you that he's feeling ill."

"You've got to be fucking with me," Remus said, groaning audibly, "the bastard."

James scratched the back of his head curiously. "Er… do you mind my asking why that's a problem? I mean – he is a dangerous slayer, on one behalf."

"Leave out the _dangerous_ part, Potter," Remus corrected bitterly, and irritably started slashing at his pancake. "that wanker."

"What is the big deal?"

"The big deal is that Black can't stick to his word," the tawny-haired man replied icily, sighing, "fucker."

James blinked daftly. "I… I'm not getting the picture."

"Good," Remus assured him, standing up from the table, "I can guarantee you that you'll be happier _not_ knowing."

And without waiting for further questions and awkward tussling of the hair, Remus bolted up the stairs and knocked impatiently on the door.

"'M ill, James, go away." Sirius' muffled voice wafted through the door, his words slurred with a nasal tone.

"Ill my ass," Remus muttered coldly, "open the damn door."

---

Sirius remained in his bed, set up to look as though he was suffering from a sudden flu. He had changed back into his pajama shirt for the 'weary' look, covered himself in three blankets, and strewn about lots of tissues on the covers.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sirius mumbled, holding his nose with his fingers. His voice came out so nasal that Sirius wanted to laugh out loud at his brilliance, but the fingers still holding his nose were preventing him from doing so. "I'm very, very sick, Lupin. I don't want to give anyone else any more trouble, seeing as I'm so _highly_ contagious."

"I saw you a few hours ago," Lupin complained, banging on the door exasperatedly. "you were fine. _Sudden_ draft of stuffed nose, cough, and stomachache?"

"Sounds about right," Sirius concluded, and held his nose again for the effective nasal tone, "must be something in the air."

Lupin laughed sardonically. "Har har," he said, and he pretended to be coughing wildly through the keyhole. "oh, it seems like I'm coming down with it too." Lupin moaned dramatically.

"Then you better rest," Sirius suggested, "in your bed. I'll be in my bed and you'll be in yours and because we'll be so obviously in separate beds, none of us will contaminate the other."

There was a small scraping noise from the other side of the door, and in a matter of a few moments, Lupin calmly opened the door and stood smugly beside it, brandishing a small toothpick.

"Keyholes don't fool me." he muttered, smirking.

Sirius was about to mumble something along the lines of "fuck you, Lupin, you're invading my personal bubble" but he could no longer hold his nose in front of Lupin so blatantly obvious.

"What are you trying to avoid?" Lupin asked, his tone softer now. He closed the door behind him.

"Nothing." Sirius muttered hastily, and then buried his nose in a tissue for a large, fake sneeze.

Lupin moved closer and examined one of the crumpled tissues on Sirius' bed sheet. "This tissue is _unused_," he accused suspiciously, and he displayed the clean tissue in front of Sirius by the hold of his fingernails.

"Snot must have… evaporated." Sirius said into his tissue.

"And you don't sound so nasal anymore. Stuffed nose gone?" Lupin asked teasingly, his tone becoming generally lower and rougher. He perched himself on the edge of the bed.

"No." Sirius said quickly, and nonchalantly shuffled farther back into the mass of pillows on his bed.

Suddenly, Lupin yanked all three blankets off of the black-haired man.

"Aha!" he yelled accusingly, as he pointed at Sirius' pants. "you're still wearing trousers! A pajama shirt, but no pajama pants? Still a trouser, usually worn at day? Where have your poor pajama pants wandered off to?"

"I don't know." Sirius rambled.

Lupin moved closer. "Then why don't I just take these off," he began teasingly, one finger gently stretching the waistband of Sirius' pants away from his waist. "and go get your pajama pants?" his face was closer than it should be allowed, and Sirius casually moved his head back.

"I'm fine."

Lupin laughed hoarsely, his breath hot on Sirius' chin. "Oh no," he insisted in a low whisper, "you're _sick_, remember? You need to stay in bed…"

Before Sirius could do anything else, he felt Remus push his shoulders down onto the bed, pinning his wrists above his head.

Sirius squealed.

"Feeling better?" Lupin asked.

Sirius shook his head, his wrists squirming under their tight hold to the mattress.

"Well, you look much healthier," the werewolf examined, giving a thorough glance at each part of the other man's body. "but perhaps I should check more…"

Lupin deftly popped open a button on Sirius' pajama shirt, then another button, and then another, just enough for him to gently slide his fingers into Sirius' shirt and caress his chest.

Sirius held his breath to attempt to restrain his moan, but when Lupin's fingers wandered down slowly to his stomach and he rolled his hips onto Sirius', he fruitlessly failed.

"You're not sick, Black," Lupin accused quietly, a fog of desire clouding over his eyes. He stopped rolling his hips. Sirius groaned at the loss and dug his fingernails into Lupin's arm.

Before Sirius could do anything else, beg, plead, _sneeze_, Lupin was off of him, heading for the door nonchalantly and giving the black-haired man a suggestive look just before he swept out of sight.

Sirius could no longer ignore the truth so blatantly in front of him.

The slayer had been slayed.

And the werewolf had become the master.

---

It was an awkward night, with Sirius' heart thumping in his chest and his fingers cold on the cup he was holding.

Lupin was drinking tea in the living room on the lumpy couch.

James was smugly polishing his wand in the kitchen doorway.

Sirius was staring deeply into the empty, clean glass of water that he had never filled. He was just attempting to pass the time by pretending to drink from a cup, and both James and Lupin had bought it.

He took another imaginary swig from his glass and swallowed on nothing audibly.

Sirius was just waiting for James to go to bed.

---

Remus stared stiffly at the wall from his spot on the couch, hands wrapped around the warm cup that heated his icy fingers.

He had a feeling of satisfaction brewing somewhere inside of him, probably because he had proved himself in control for once in his life. Not when he was with his pack of wolf friends, not when he was with his parents, not when he under the mercy of a slayer's wand, was he ever in control. He was obedient, docile, and taught to be so.

But rebelling against those rules made Remus feel oh so manipulative.

And it was a good feeling.

Remus smiled at the thought, sipping gently from the cup once again as he wrapped his thumb around the handle. Warmth spread in his mouth.

He peered around the corner to see Potter leaning against the doorframe in a bathrobe and slippers, hair wet and tangled, and polishing his wand with a smirk.

_What an ego_, Remus thought, rolling his eyes before sipping from his cup's rim again.

He looked over at Black, whose foot was tapping impatiently on the floor and fidgeting with his fingers unnervingly, along with drinking repeatedly from an… empty glass?

_Damn Potter_, Remus cursed, _hurry up and go to bed._

---

Sirius was getting impatient. With constant glares at James, he was surprised that his friend was so incredibly oblivious of Sirius' hard stares that could shoot daggers through skin.

How many times could you polish a bloody wand??

_There's a slayer who embraces his weapons_, Sirius thought dryly, and let his face fall into his hands.

James started humming.

Sirius groaned.

"Hmmm," he hinted to James, "today's been a _long_ day. Perhaps sleeping would be a good idea."

James shrugged. "Maybe."

"I… I could finish polishing that wand for you…?"

"No!" James shouted. "you'll get your oily fingerprints all over it."

"You need to stop being so protective of your wand, James." Sirius admonished, and glared at the table grumpily. "I'm thirsty."

"Thirsty? You've been drinking water all evening."

"I…" Sirius started helplessly, staring at his clean cup. "I suppose."

James yawned loudly, and Sirius took it as a sign that the other man would finally go to his bed. Lupin was also watching James stretch tiredly.

"You look exhausted, James," Lupin said smoothly, easing sympathy into his voice carefully. "that can't be healthy. Your hangover must still be lingering a bit – why don't you go to sleep earlier today?"

"Yeah, I think you have a point. Better go sleep it off."

Sirius stared at Lupin incredulously, who was smiling satisfyingly and giving a small, subtle wink in Sirius' direction. Sirius flushed, much to his surprise, making him eclipse his face hastily in the shadows.

James shuffled up the stairs, hands in his bathrobe pockets. "I think I may have caught your cold, Sirius…" he muttered languidly as he traipsed up the stairs, and Sirius couldn't help but laugh out loud.

---

They waited awkwardly on separate couches until the streetlights were all extinguished and they could hear light snoring coming from James' room upstairs.

"So…" Sirius began tentatively, and patted his knee awkwardly.

Remus stared at him from the other side of the room. "Shut up," he ordered, grabbing Sirius by the collar. "and come with me upstairs."

_AN_: For those of you readers that are driven wild by the smutless chapters, don't worry, because there is sex to be read about! XD Probably within the next chapter or so.

So what do you want? Do you want to read puppy sex soon or wait for it? They're still going to keep sleeping with one another, but it's your choice when you want to read it.

Keep the hugs, kisses, and loves coming. I love you all. :D


	6. Chapter 6

When Sirius awoke, his arm had been draped lazily over Lupin's shoulder, while the other man's arms were drawn around his waist loosely. How they had fallen asleep in _that_ position he was clueless to. Usually after sex Sirius would turn to one side of the bed and stay there, not cuddle with the other person in the bed. That… that was just _awkward_.

It took Sirius a moment to realize what a bastard he was being, and how insensitive too. And then it struck just how long it had been since he'd been a last relationship.

His eyes drifted down to the softly breathing form of Remus Lupin, who was still curling up closer to Sirius for warmth. It had been a cold night. And frankly, when Sirius looked at the curtains, he couldn't detect any sunlight radiating through the flimsy fabric. Just the faint light of the moon and the rest being enveloped in darkness.

It was probably still around three in the morning.

Sirius poked a foot out of the sheet, and felt it go almost frigid. It was freezing outside. He would have to chastise James for not making sure that the boilers were working correctly, because usually the house was cozily warm, especially during the winter like this.

As nonchalantly as he could, Sirius attempted to snuggle closer to Lupin. The other man was warm, being all curled up against Sirius' thigh and under the protection of a thick blanket.

"Mmm." Lupin sighed quietly as Sirius moved closer, making the black-haired man freeze. Had Lupin just _moaned_ because he had moved closer?

And he didn't need to hesitate on that thought, as Lupin caressed a hand on Sirius' hip.

"Lupin?" Sirius whispered silently. "Lupin, are you awake?"

But he didn't respond, he only stayed still against Sirius' body.

Until –

"I think that sometimes, Black, you hide," Lupin murmured gently.

Sirius almost jumped out of the bed, but only managed a strangled scream, coming to the realization that Lupin was awake.

"Shh," Lupin soothed. "It's just me."

He had too soft of a voice, that Lupin, and it didn't help Sirius at all when he attempted to disentangle their limbs and Lupin pushed him down onto the bed firmly to keep them in place.

"You hide under this shield that makes you look all cold and courageous and strong when you're really not. You're sensitive, you care, and you're no killer. You hide under the mask that you are a killer, hoping that people won't come close to you because of that title. But you're really not so cold. In fact, you're really warm. I know that. I'm sure that Potter knows that. But what I don't know is why you hide in the first place."

Sirius was flabbergasted. When in his dreams did Remus subconsciously comprehend this information for the speech he was giving now? He knew no one quite so clever that they could throw together something so intellectual at three in the morning.

"Er," he started. "when in hell did you prepare this dialogue?"

Lupin chuckled softly. "I was thinking about it last night. I thought that you were so strong and indestructible that you would be the one hurting_ me_. But I think that I can actually hurt you more, not that I want to."

"Oh." Sirius said, his brain spinning, "that was… very interesting of you to do. I didn't know anyone who would analyze people so scrutinizingly as you do – or as well, too."

"Is… is it still dark?"

"Uhm. Yes."

Before Sirius could say anything else, Lupin had flipped himself over so he was securely on top of the other man, pinning down his wrists.

"Well," he said suggestively. "this could be fun."

Sirius didn't protest when Lupin ripped open his pajama shirt and started playing with the hem of his waistband, but there was one last coherent thought that flickered through his brain when he moaned loudly as Lupin brushed his fingertips across Sirius' chest.

"But James," he gasped. "he'll wake up."

"He's in the other room." Lupin brushed past, licking at Sirius' skin.

"Walls aren't soundproof," Sirius protested. "and James may not look it, but that guy sleeps lighter than a tiger. One sound, and he's up and… and prowling."

Lupin groped for the wand that was laying on Sirius' nightstand, flicking it at the door behind him. There was an audible click coming from the knob.

"Well, them let him look. The door is locked."

And that was enough for Sirius, who dove for Lupin's pants to frantically remove them.

---

James woke up, grumbling, before it was even light outside. Not even faintly light. No light whatsoever. Just a pitch-black sky, without any streetlights or anything.

This is not a time for _anybody_ to be making noise.

Grunting loudly at the disturbance, James fumbled for his glasses and pushed them roughly up his nose so he could see his clock blinking owlishly at him:

_2:37_

He groaned, wondering why the hell there was a such an odd noise coming from Sirius' room. It was a ruckus in James' eyes, who slept like a pigeon at a construction site

James threw the covers off himself, still muttering sleepily to himself. He limped on over to the hall, and reached Sirius' door.

When he finally identified the noise, James groaned moodily.

Now was not the time to Sirius to masturbate.

"Sirius," James shouted groggily, pounding on the door. "stop bloody _fucking_ yourself at two thirty in the morning and go the fuck to sleep!" with that, he kicked the door and trotted back to his own bed, making sure to step on the squeaky parts on the floor just to aggravate Sirius, even though the noise from his friend's room had already stopped.

---

"Oh my fucking god," Sirius breathed, biting on the covers to his bed nervously. "I can't believe James almost walked in. He could have just unlocked the door and come right in!"

Lupin sighed. "He's your friend, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Sirius admitted uncomfortably, "doesn't mean we share _everything_. Frankly, I don't like having him watch me and my dates… or just me."

"So you _do_ masturbate?" Lupin asked interestingly, amusement evident in his smile.

Sirius smacked Lupin over the head roughly. "Hey, everybody does it," he said coolly, "this wasn't the first time James came over here to tell me to stop fucking myself."

Lupin suppressed a deep laugh. "You two must not be too good of roommates."

"We're fine. Just as long as I don't masturbate and he keeps a silencing charm on his door."

---

James was the first one up the next morning, pouring himself bubbling hot coffee and overcooking his eggs. But he didn't care. It's not like Sirius would eat them anyway. James stirred his coffee in rough movements, causing hot coffee to slosh out onto the counter.

Sirius traipsed innocently down the stairs, hands in his bathrobe pockets.

"Hey, James!" he greeted cheerfully, a red tint growing on his cheeks. "I had a good night. I slept like a log."

James poked at his toast irritably. "Aren't you going to ask me if _I_ had a good night?"

"I… wasn't planning on it." Sirius murmured uneasily, awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

"Well, it wasn't pleasant." James muttered, and grabbed Sirius' shoulders. He swiveled the other man around so they were face-to-face.

Sirius sighed.

"Look dude, I know that you haven't had a bird come over in a long time, but this masturbating at night has got to stop. It's becoming rather routinely and it's annoying me!"

Sirius rolled his eyes at the ceiling, stealing a bite off of James' toast. "Why is this a problem?" he asked loftily.

"Because!" James hissed quietly, keeping his voice silent. "when… when I hear that, I… let's just say that it starts turning me on, okay?"

Sirius laughed loudly. "You get an erection from listening to me masturbate?"

James blushed scarlet, and considered briefly dumping the eggs he had burnt on top of Sirius' mop of black hair.

"Shut up," he muttered. "look, can't you just make this a… a bathroom thing? Not at night?"

Sirius sighed. "We men all have our needs, James. Just because you have basically nothing to masturbate on doesn't mean _I_ don't. Go call Evans and ask her to give you the real thing, all right?"

"No! Sirius, this is a problem!" James shouted frustratingly.

"It doesn't bother Lupin, does it?" Sirius asked heatedly. "he hasn't said anything."

"That's probably cause the guy is so fucking quiet. He's probably been to embarrassed to bring up your disgusting habits."

Sirius tutted. "Oh?" he asked airily. "Let's see about that."

As if on cue, Lupin walked swiftly out of the bathroom, dressed and ready with his hair slightly damp from his morning shower. He smiled slightly at the two in front of him that were glowering at one another.

"Lupin," James growled. "can you come here?"

The other man shuffled towards them, nodding. "Sure. Is there a problem?"

"Not with you." Sirius assured. "Just something James and I can't agree on."

"This is going to be a majority rules thing, okay, Sirius? If it bothers him, no more masturbating, and if it doesn't… then… well… at least put a silencing charm on the door, all right?" James asked heatedly. Sirius nodded.

"Lupin," he said, turning to Remus. "does it bother you if I masturbate at night?"

Lupin looked flabbergasted, turning from James to Sirius awkwardly. "Uhm… those this conversation need me?"

"Yes!" James and Sirius both said in unison, and Sirius gave Lupin a knowing glance. Lupin refrained from laughing.

"Well, I heard him last night, but it's not a problem. I mean, all men have their needs."

James looked horrified as he stared at Lupin's blank face. "You sick bastard." he cursed. "you _enjoy_ hearing Sirius masturbate?" he pointed at Sirius accusingly, and Lupin put his hands up defensively.

"Look, can we stop talking about my genitals here?" Sirius pleaded disgustingly, looking rather revolted. Lupin nodded.

"Yes please," the tawny-haired man said. "I still want to eat breakfast."

---

"_You_, Lupin, are an excellent actor." Black complimented smugly after breakfast, when Potter had gone out to take a walk.

Remus smiled from Regulus's bed, smirking slightly. "Thanks, Black. Besides, why should your nighttime duties bother me?" he asked suggestively.

Black strutted over to the werewolf, pushing him down on the mattress. "This is still just a sex thing, right?" he asked for reassurance, and Remus nodded.

"Oh yeah," he said surely. "Is James out?"

Black nodded, playing with Remus' trouser belt. "He went for a walk. Probably to give himself a fuck, he told me that my masturbating turned him on. Who knows that talking about it will do to him? The poor man must have wet his pants earlier today."

Remus laughed, throwing his head back. "Well, I don't know about him, but when you talk about your genitals it sure turns me on."

"You know what," Sirius said, agreeing. "I think it turns me on too."

"I guess that's a good thing," Remus said. "can we skip the foreplay now?"

"Definitely." Black said, and growled hungrily as he exposed the other man's chest.

---

What did Sirius think he was doing, and what did Lupin think he was doing, siding with him?

Why was Lupin siding with him anyway? _James_ was the one who had been nice to Lupin, who had attempted to talk to him, and actually gotten drunk with him. What had Sirius done that had made Lupin and him become 'buddies'?

James scowled, grimacing into his coat as he wrapped his cloak securely around himself for warmth. His boots were thudding heavily along the sidewalk as he checked the address stored in his pocket and satisfyingly walked up the steps of a house with a well-cultivated garden and a picture perfect paint job.

"Hullo Evans." James greeted as Lily opened the door and stared horrifyingly out at him.

"Oh my god," she mumbled. "You know where I live?!"

"It's not like I'm stalking you!" James said defensively, holding up two gloved hands. "can you let me in, I'm freezing?"

Lily leaned against the doorframe. "Why should I do that?"

"Because I need someone to talk to about this… issue."

"Talk to your buddy Black," she said coldly. "I don't want to have anything to do with a cruel, cold-blooded _slayer_." She spat the last words as though she was staring upon a particularly nasty virus. "now get off of my doorstep before I call the Aurors. Or the Ministry – tell them that you aren't doing your job. Don't you have some poor, innocent vampires or werewolves to murder with samurai swords?"

James brushed all of that off. "Listen, Evans, did any of the girls in your dormitory back in Hogwarts ever… masturbate at night?"

Lily tutted loudly, her eyes growing wide.

"Dirty pervert!" she screeched accusingly. "that is none of your fucking business!" she slammed the door in his face.

"No – wait!" James called desperately, and pounded on the hard wood insistently. "I'm _not_ a pervert! You misunderstood me! No!! C'mon, Evans… please?"

Lily swung the door open again, looking terribly grim and stony. "You have two seconds," she said. "to explain yourself and your bastardish deeds."

James smiled faintly. "Thank you," he breathed. "Sirius is masturbating at night and it bothers _me_, but everyone else seems to be just _fine_ with it."

"Everyone else?" Lily questioned, cocking an eyebrow. "who the hell are you living with?"

James sighed. "Would you believe me if I told you that we didn't have the heart to kill this one werewolf?" he asked desperately. Lily gaped. "he's kind of… living with us."

"Well then. That's… new."

"But he said that it's okay for Sirius to masturbate!" James said exasperatedly.

Lily laughed wryly. "I don't remember anyone in Hogwarts who _liked_ Sirius Black masturbating… except for the girls who he was with – but they were actually sleeping _with_ him, like masturbating for two. So the only logical explanation is that your werewolf friend is sleeping with Black."

"Oh no no no," James shook his head firmly. "Sirius hates him. He would never even _think_ of sleeping with Lupin. He hates _all_ werewolves. He's kind of a xenophobe."

"Then you have one screwed up werewolf living with you, if he likes Black masturbating."

---

"Did I ever mention to you that you get better every time we do this?" Lupin complimented breathlessly, panting slightly under the bedsheets. Sirius flashed him a toothy grin of ego.

"So are you," he said.

"What if Potter were to walk in right now?"

Sirius smiled. "Well, you would burn about one thousand calories, considering that we'd be bustling about so bloody much because he'd be coming home."

"One thousand calories?" Lupin repeated doubtfully. "Yeah, and semen whitens the teeth."

"Does is really?" Sirius asked.

"Actually, yes. And it cuts plaque better than mouthwash." Lupin said dryly.

Sirius chuckled. "All the smiles I saved in the last few years."

Lupin's smile diminished slightly. "You've done this a lot, then?"

"Kind of," he agreed. "some girls called me the Casanova of Hogwarts when I was in school, but I don't believe it. I've been in love a few times… I think."

"Lust must be your favorite sin." Lupin observed.

"I'd rather say envy," Sirius corrected, "it's hilarious if I bring a hot bird home that looks a lot like the girl James was constantly trying to get back in school – Evans was her name – that constantly rejected him."

"Maybe Potter should have switched this men," Remus suggested. "the rejection isn't so tough then."

---

James unlocked the front door to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, breathing out puffs of cold air as he shivered in the icy weather. Bursting into the warmth that the grimy house held, James satisfyingly smiled, grinning at the fire crackling merrily in the fireplace.

There was a thud from upstairs, as though someone had fallen to the floor, lots of bustling of sheets and clothes, and whispered hisses.

James concernedly walked towards the steps, when Sirius walked suddenly out into the hallway, clad in nothing but his skin. Naked.

He had not taken a walk to come back to a naked roommate – to a naked friend – to a naked Sirius Black in his house.

"FUCKING MOTHER, SIRIUS BLACK, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" James screeched, covering his eyes his hands hurriedly.

"It's all right!" Sirius babbled, obviously humiliated. James could almost feel the blush radiating off of his friend, even though it was probably just the warm fire heating James up. "I… I just took a shower."

"_And fucking streaked in the house? _We have a guest in the house, Sirius! First masturbating, now walking around naked in the house, what the fuck has gotten into you?! We need to have a talk about this!" James rambled furiously. He stomped his foot firmly to add more emphasis.

"You can look, James. Don't be so paranoid."

"Paranoid?" James mocked, laughing dryly, peeking through his fingers. "My best friend is running around naked in the house, probably fucking himself in the kitchen and the hallway and the bathroom and the boiler room and everywhere."

He saw that Sirius had draped a towel around his waist, so he removed his hands.

"Wait a moment," he mumbled, "you're not wet. You're hair isn't wet. You didn't take a shower…"

"I – used a drying charm." Sirius rambled, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

"You're wearing socks!" James accused in an oddly high-pitched voice.

"I was… starting to get dressed."

"Well, Sirius," James mocked. "you usually start with the_undergarments_."

"Socks count as an undergarment!" Sirius said heatedly.

"We need to go briefs shopping if this is how you're running around the house in _winter_." James chastised. "Did Lupin see you?"

"Of course not," Sirius brushed off, "he was busy in Regulus's room. I don't fancy stripping in front of a bloody werewolf."

James yanked off his scarf. "Well, good. We don't need to give Lupin another reason to mock us."

Sirius was indignant, stomping down two steps, so he was closer to James but still sizably taller than him. "I have a very… fair package. I'd rather say _gifted_."

The other man closed his eyes in disgust. "Who said anything about your_package_?" he asked revoltingly, shuddering. "Besides. Not that I should worry about Lupin mocking us. Since you and him are_buddies_ now." James spat the last words.

For a moment, fear and alarm – and even a bit of guilt – flashed over Sirius' face, but it was immediately replaced afterwards with a large toothy smile.

"C'mon, mate, what are you talking about? I would never be buddies with a_werewolf_. You're my best friend."

"He's constantly siding with you!" James said loudly. "and – and you're always _talking_ to one another in these hurried whispers. Like _I_ was the one about to be slayed."

"Nonsense, James," Sirius said hastily, "we haven't been talking, whispering, or sharing ghastly childhood tales or anything, okay? And with the siding thing – that's not his fault. Listening to me masturbate is a very… normal thing, seeing that I'm so attractive–"

James grunted. "Hell no," he murmured. "look, I just don't feel good about Lupin. You were right from the beginning, we just need to get him out. We're slayers, he's a werewolf. It's… it's what we do. I don't wanna get fired."

James could tell that there was a storm battling with Sirius' brain at the moment, with the blazing look in his eyes. He wasn't angry, he wasn't upset, he was just considering and weighing options. And that meant tricky business, usually.

Sirius sighed. "Fine," he said. "I don't want to get fired either."

James smiled. "I'm going to go eat something then… I'm starving – do you want something too?"

The other man shook his head. "I'm good." And before James could sit down to talk with his friend, Sirius had raced back up the stairs and shut the door to his room.

---

"Bastard, he is." Sirius complained, letting go of his towel and replacing it with his pants. "James wants to get rid of you."

"…get rid of me?" Lupin repeated slowly.

"Yeah." Sirius confirmed, hastening to put on his shirt. "look, he's making lunch downstairs, I really don't want to seem suspicious and stay up here any longer… want to come? He's probably making something nasty that we can all eat."

Lupin laughed, grabbing for his own clothes as well. "Sure," then he furrowed his eyebrows together contemplatively, staring after Sirius' figure oddly. "do… do _you_ want to get rid of me?"

"'Course I don't," Sirius said, fastening his buckle. "you're one of the best people I've had sex with in years. And there's no one else really available either."

Remus nodded heavily. "So you only want to keep me around for the sex?"

Sirius was about to nod, when something in his thoughts stopped him. Sirius froze in his actions. Did he only want to keep Lupin around for his sex?

"Sure," Sirius answered uneasily, mumbling out his words and unsure of his answer. He could see the flash of a frown on the werewolf's face, before it disappeared with his neutral expression once again.

Was Sirius supposed to feel this horrible? This horrible for basically using someone for their sex? For the other person's entertainment, enjoyment?

"Do you want to stay, Lupin?" Sirius asked quietly.

"Yeah, I do."

And that's the last Sirius thought about it.


	7. Chapter 7

"So you're _not_ ill?"

James shook his head, feeling a rock of guilt pressing against his stomach painfully. It felt worse than deplorable to be turning both Sirius and Lupin in like this to the Ministry. Above the Minister's many chins, James could see a hint of both perplexedness and agitation in his eyes. James cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"The werewolf – he's currently living the boiler room."

James did not want to admit that he had been keeping a lethal werewolf running loose in the house as he had done – because the sense had only come to him now. A potentially harmless slayer letting a dangerous werewolf sleep in the guest room? That was not the common sense of a killer.

"He used to be in the backyard, but he insisted to be inside with – the cold and all."

The Minister was not concerned with why James or Sirius did not slaughter the werewolf to pieces; he still had the corners of his mouth twitching ragingly.

"So Mr. Black was _lying_ when he excused himself from his working duties by telling me that you were feeling poorly?"

"Er – I dunno." James muttered.

The Minister heaved a long, rattling sigh, fury dripping off of his voice.

"Well, then, Mr. Potter," he said, giving James a small forced smile, "I appreciate you clearing that up. I will have a Ministry official come tonight around midnight, if that's all right, to bring the werewolf at your home here for killing, where he won't be a harm to anyone," he stood up from his chair, offering his hand out to James. "and tell Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, that he is fired."

James blinked, as though he had heard the Minister incorrectly. "Fired?" he repeated. "Erm – does that mean I'll be working partnerless?"

"Until we can get a suitable substitute, yes," the Minister sighed heavily, pausing slightly at the traumatized look on the black-haired man's face, "Yes, yes, dreadful, isn't it? We shall mourn the loss of Sirius Black at the Ministry." He pouted, not fooling James for a second.

"I – Minister–!"

"Yes, you are right. We shall not mourn his loss."

"Minister!" James said reproachfully. "I protest!" he said firmly, slamming his fist against the table with more manliness and courage than he actually possessed.

The elder man leant over the table, his glasses on the tip of his nose. "Mr. Potter," he said quietly. "You do as I ask, and you will get a raise large enough to make sure that the loss of Mr. Black's salary will do no harm to your daily life."

James tilted his head, considering and weighing options.

"Fair enough." he agreed, and shook hands vigorously with the Minister.

---

Sirius was sipping at his mug thoughtfully when James had arrived home, slamming doors loudly and pounding his coat inside the closet with as much racket as he could produce. Sirius lifted his head up from the table curiously, his eyebrows poised.

"…James?"

"_Yes_, Sirius?" James hissed irritably.

"James, stop doing that. Stop pretending to be all mad and huffy with me, you suck at acting."

James pursed his lips at his friend, marching towards Sirius importantly.

"The Ministry," he said, "has fired you."

"What?!" Sirius exploded, shooting up from his chair.

"Yes, Sirius," James said icily. "I hope that's what you wanted, when you kept a werewolf – a lethally dangerous item – in the house."

"What the fuck, James?! How the hell did the Ministry find out?"

James froze. "I – I, er, told them."

There was a storm battling in Sirius' eyes as he fought for words but found none. His fists clenched and his eyebrows twitched, but he only stared piercingly at James.

There was silence – dead silence. And anyone living frequently in Grimmauld Place would know that silence was not found often there. Speech, noise, and rowdiness was golden.

"Why. The. Fuck. Did you tell the Ministry?!" Sirius ejaculated furiously.

"Because you are keeping a bloody werewolf in the house, and you even agreed to get rid of him!"

"You didn't have to turn _me_ in!"

"How else would I have explained that Lupin was _still_ living here?" James asked, crossing his arms.

"Dear god, James, _you lie_!!" Sirius threw his arms up exasperatedly.

"Look, Sirius, I don't want you to be fired permanently – I objected, I really did – but the Minister was really persistent–"

"Of course he was, the Minister hates me, with his fancy title and his colossal office!" Sirius spat.

"_Sirius!_ Would you listen to me?! You need to get your ass into the Minister's office _right now_ and let him lecture you to hell and back, so you can come home with the satisfaction of knowing that your job is still with you!"

"No!" Sirius protested, and he ran halfway up the stairs dramatically, whisking around and pivoting on the spot to face James theatrically. "Because you know what, James? I don't _want_ to be a slayer!"

---

"Hey Lupin." Sirius brooded moodily, walking inside Regulus's room and shutting the door behind him silently. His knuckles were still white from all of the fist-clenching downstairs with James.

"I take it that this is not a casual conversation? You never do casual conversation with me."

"I… I need good sex." Sirius sighed, heaving himself onto the bed sheets. He leant forward and fumbled with the other man's shirt buttons.

"So that's what this is about?" Lupin asked, sighing. "No, no, no, wait." He pushed the black-haired man off. "You don't need for a good fuck. What you _need_ is a good listener."

"Don't get all mother hen on me, Lupin."

"I'm not, Black, I'm just trying to help you."

Sirius sighed. "James turned me – us – into the Ministry."

For a moment Lupin was quiet, paralyzed in shock and slight fear. He hadn't been expecting this problem to involve him. "S-Should I be worried?"

Sirius looked up from his nest in his face in his hands, sighing. James hadn't mentioned the Ministry doing anything about Lupin – they were just firing Sirius.

That definitely put a better light on things.

"No. No, Lupin, you shouldn't be."

"Good then," Lupin said, smiling. "Now let's get rid of your problem by removing one's clothes, hmm?"

---

After Sirius had eaten lunch in the bathroom to avoid James, who he was know referring to as the Ex-Best-Friend-Who-Betrayed-Me, Lupin had burst in, scratching his neck awkwardly.

He took a glance at Sirius, perched on the toilet seat with his feet resting on the bathtub rim, a sandwich dripping crumbs into his lap, which he occasionally brushed off into the toilet.

Remus nodded uneasily at his position, leaning onto the sink counter.

"Tonight's full moon."

"Mmhmm," Sirius said in between mouthfuls. "I was wondering when it was going to be your time of the month."

Lupin slapped the mop of smooth black hair on Sirius' head, indignant with pursed lips. "I am no women, Black."

"No, you are a man."

And Sirius was sleeping with him. A male, homosexual, werewolf. Who was no female. Lupin had almost confirmed it now, here. It was stupid, really.

"So how are you going to do it? Run away into the woods and not find your way back?"

Remus had a flicker of misery in his eyes, before he shook his head, hair falling into his forehead. "I – no. Think of me like a stray dog. I'll stay in the backyard."

"If there's a fence. We have no fence, Lupin."

"Don't worry. I won't lose my way."

Sirius flushed the excess crumbs of his sandwich down the toilet, brushing his hands together briskly. "Good, then," and he tried not to let his relief of the fact that Lupin wouldn't accidentally run away as the wolf show too much.

---

Sirius had found it almost heartbreaking to watch Lupin disappear into the darkness of the backyard. Despite Lupin's words, Sirius was still terrified of him running away, as little as he wanted to admit it.

"Be careful out there, Lupin. I don't want to have to get a new werewolf."

Lupin smiled and then he was off, eclipsed by the shadows of the uncultivated bushes and massive trees.

Sirius shuddered at the winter cold that was brushing against his shoulder repeatedly, so he shut the door hurriedly not to have to watch Lupin tearing his muscles apart.

He sauntered into the living room.

James was sitting innocently on a chair pivoted to face the front yard, as his eyes zipped about the lawn in search for someone.

He was sitting _too_ innocently, almost.

"Who are you waiting for?" Sirius demanded suspiciously, stomping forward and lighting his wand threateningly into James' eyes.

James pushed his friend's wand down to a lower distance so it was no longer shining in his face, and he drew himself together importantly.

"Nothing that you have to worry about."

"It's eleven p.m. and you are staring alertfully out the window," Sirius grasped the front of James' shirt and pulled him towards himself. "what aren't you telling me?"

James wriggled free of the firm fingers on his shirt and heatedly glared at Sirius. "The Ministry is coming to get Lupin," he stated loftily, his voice icily airy. "since you, after all, agreed to get rid of him."

The temperature dropped about fifty degrees in the room, leaving Sirius' face as pale as snow and his features contorted in rage.

"You – the Ministry – _what_?"

"As I said," James repeated. "the Ministry is coming to fetch Lupin. He is a dangerous creature and it was foolish to house him here in our home."

"This is my house," Sirius said slowly. "It's a _Black_ house. Not a Potter house – its Number Twelve Grimmauld Place! And that means that it is mine! And I can keep whatever _pets_ I want to in here, whether it's a dragon, a Mandrake, or a werewolf!"

James coolly stood up, but Sirius could detect a hint of impatience and fury building up in the other man's face. Even his unruly hair was twitching uncomfortably.

"Proud to be a Black, are you, Sirius?"

Sirius aimed, taking a deep swing at James' face, but he dodged it skillfully and took a step back from Sirius.

"You got me fired, and that's fine," Sirius breathed heavily, his nostrils flaring. "but you didn't have to involve Lupin this."

"You said that I could get rid of him."

"Dammit, James! Could you just keep your fucking mouth shut–"

There was a polite and overly courteous knock coming from the door. Both Sirius and James exchanged glances of death before dodging to the door. Sirius hastily opened it and stared condescendingly down at two stern-looking Ministry Officials. Both were brandishing wands in preparation, and with a gulp Sirius also realized that they had sharp, shiny knifes sticking out of their coats for extreme protection.

"We have received a warning call from the Minister," one of the officials said stonily, "that a werewolf is currently living here. Where is it?"

"Er – kind Ministry Officials, do you care for a drink before you fight danger?" Sirius asked sweetly, opening the door for them and ushering them into the kitchen. The muscles on James' face were flexing subconsciously when Sirius passed him, steering the two men into the dining room.

"No, that's all right," James cut in, slamming the door shut in a loud_bang_. "I wish that they could get rid of the werewolf first. Tea can always be had later." He put his hands on his hips crossly.

"Never mind him, sirs, he's just a bit grumpy from staying up so late – what will it be? Brandy? Scotch? Rum?" Sirius offered, flashing a dazzling smile across the table after he had placed the officials firmly in their chairs.

"Do you have something _non_alcoholic?" one of the officials asked, adjusting his glasses.

"Er – no," Sirius lied, but James floated into the kitchen like the sweet little angel he was pretending to be, and carried out a pitcher of water and pumpkin juice.

"There you go, sirs, you really must be thirsty. Water or juice?"

The officials peered suspiciously at Sirius over their silver spectacles, as though expecting him to be a drunk.

"I…" Sirius began awkwardly. "James over there buys the drinks. I thought he had only bought alcohol like he usually does."

There was a noisy, pain-filled howl coming from the backyard, and Sirius hastily shut the curtains. James, however, strolled over, humbly smiling at the officials and yanking open the curtains.

"The moon is simply beautiful tonight, isn't it? No harm in bringing a little bit of scenery into your midnight-teatime, hmm?" James asked, his voice sugarcoated. There was practically doughnut glaze dripping from his mouth.

"Except that there is no tea." One of the men said critically.

"Ah, yes. Would you perhaps like tea, as a refill, instead of juice?" Sirius offered. _Anything_ to keep these officials in here longer and not outside slaying Lupin. He doubted that even with the werewolf's viciousness, that they could dodge a blast of a death curse.

"We are attempting to slay a werewolf, not stay on the bathroom all night long," the other man condescended seriously.

"Er, right. Well, how about some crackers then? To go with the tea? Or, juice, in your case?"

Despite the icy night without the boiler cranked up, Sirius was sweating. These officials weren't kidding around; their wands were still poised securely in their fingers while the cup was furled around the other hand.

"No thank you. This is no picnic, Mr. Black."

Another howl. And this time, the Ministry workers were peering curiously out the window to see what had made the sound.

Sirius rapidly diverted their attention. "Oh my, is that a ghoul?" he said loudly, staring avidly into the plumbing pipes of the kitchen sinks.

"A ghoul?!" the official shouted in alarm, and whipped out his wand.

"Oh, oh, never mind. That was just the remains of last night's steak, sir." Sirius said quickly, and caught James' warning glance.

James jerked the curtain almost off of its rod. "Oh my, is that our werewolf outside? I see fur." the black-haired man pretended to shiver in fear and the officials both stood up concernedly, abandoning their juice.

"We should go attend to the werewolf then." they said briskly.

"_Inpedimenta!_" Sirius cried, aiming his wands at both of the officials, who stopped mid-walk.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Black?" James barked, fumbling in his pocket for his wand to briefly remember that it was in his bedroom.

As James dashed upstairs to fetch his wand to undo the curse on the officials, Sirius hastened up the steps as well, grabbing for the Invisibility Cloak and darting outside.

Lupin was lying, torn and shred from skin to bone, blood soaking through his battered clothes and seeping into the dirt. For a moment, the sight of Lupin lying helpless and unconscious from the lack of blood, Sirius felt like his heart was being poked with a knife. Or perhaps a million toothpicks. Or James' _toenails_.

But he remembered that the officials in the house were about to be freed from the temporary curse by James' wand, and he hurried to throw the Cloak over Lupin's body efficiently.

The backdoor burst open with a windswept James and two cantankerous Ministry Officials.

"My, my," Sirius said, disheartened, pretending to search around the backyard miserably. "looks like that nasty werewolf ran away while he was transforming with the full moon and all."

The Officials didn't have time to question Sirius' curse that had been bellowed at them, as they scurried over the rugged ground, scouring it with their lit wands.

"Well, Mr. Potter," the Officials said, "I do think that the werewolf ran out of your way by vanishing from this backyard. He probably dashed off to the cemetery not too many miles away – werewolves can run _miles_ when they transform, their speed is simply fascinating – we'll apparate there to capture him."

Before James could point out that Lupin was probably still in this backyard insistently, the dark shadowed figures of the two officials were gone, and they apparated away with a _pop_.

The silence except for the crickets was unbreakably. Sirius' heart was beating incredibly fast for the slowed-down action. James took a step on the dry grass slowly, looking piercingly at Sirius through the moonlight.

"He didn't run far," he said firmly, "you have something to do with this, Sirius. Where is he?!"

The look on James' face was almost manic as Sirius shrugged, shaking his head. James stomped forwards.

"You've done something with him. I heard Lupin howling! He couldn't have just darted out of sight in one minute's time!" he shrieked.

Sirius shrugged again. "How do you know? Werewolves are amazing creatures."

James' chest heaved. "He's in this backyard, Sirius, and you know it."

"No," the other man disagreed, "but he _is_ still alive, thanks to me."

"I'm not finished with Lupin and the Ministry yet."

"I'm not either."

Sirius, heard a muffled whimper from under the Invisibility Cloak, and remembered Lupin with a spring of guilt in his mind.

"And now I'm going to make everything up to Lupin that I just put him through, by punching you in the face right now."

And Sirius did it just like he said he was going to, because James didn't move fast enough, and it felt terribly good to hear the earsplitting crunch of James' bones as his knuckles made contact with his face hard.

---

When Remus woke up, the sound of male hisses were blaring in his ears. It was dark, very dark, and as he shifted, he whimpered at the pain that was coursing through his side. A silky smooth fabric brushed against his hip, and Remus' eyes opened in surprise and shock.

Rapid footsteps hurried over to Remus, and because of the incredible darkness outside the werewolf couldn't find out who. But then the next second Black's face appeared in front of Remus, yanking off the fabric that had been covering him.

"B-Black?" Remus moaned, clutching at the bloody gash on his thigh.

Sirius made a small, whimpering sound at the state of Remus, and scooped him up with his arms.

Remus had never felt so much like an infant. A toddler, being rocked and forth by their mother after scraping his knee ever so softly on that very, _very_ sharp edge of that pillow.

And he had never felt so uneasy, with a slayer carrying him like a bride upstairs. Remus could feel Black's heartbeat against his arm, thumping like a drum. Loud, consistent, and frequent.

"Black, calm down," Remus whispered with the energy he could muster. "this happens every month."

But Black hadn't lessened his pace in the slightest as he locked the door to Regulus' bedroom and put Remus carefully onto the sheets, brushing his hair away from his half-closed eyes.

"I'd never seen a transformation before, Lupin."

"I-It's not a suicidal w-wish, Black. It's natural selection…" Lupin croaked. "I'm not made of g-glass."

But his eyes fluttered closed out of exhaustion, and he still felt Black's tingling fingers fondling his hair.

"Come down here." Remus requested softly. He felt Black's trembling breath on his forehead.

Ever so gently, Remus reached out for his shirt collar, and pulled him closer until their lips met tenderly. Black was able to taste the blood that had been leaking from Remus' cut lip.

The first time they had kissed.

And neither of them knew if it had just been because Remus was broken, or Sirius was vulnerable.

But they couldn't deny any longer that this wasn't only a sex thing.


	8. Chapter 8

How could anyone so potentially lethal and fierce be so scarred and delicate?

Sirius sighed contemplatively, brushing the hair gently away from Lupin's face.

The werewolf was lying sleepily in Regulus's bed, entirely clad except for many thick, white bandages, Sirius in the same bed, watching him peacefully.

Lupin squirmed, stirring more into Sirius' warm body. Sirius didn't care much if the other man's blood that had seeped through the white pads was staining his chest; he gratefully pulled Lupin closer and toyed with his hair.

"B-Black?"

Sirius jumped, looking to make eye contact with the werewolf. He smiled tenderly. "Hey. Feeling better?"

"Sore. In Pain. That about sums it up." Remus murmured groggily.

"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?"

Lupin shook his head. "Werewolf wounds take a while to heal. Even though they never really heal properly." He snuggled farther into Sirius. "Mm, you're warm."

Sirius wrapped an arm around the other man, brushing his fingers against his neck. Lupin looked up, and they both leaned in at the same time, their mouths meeting at a slightly more fervent pace than the previous night.

Lupin moaned, his skin tingling, almost aching to be touched. Sirius subconsciously yielded to that desire, ever-so-gently letting his hands roam around Remus' torso, stopping one hand to rest at his hip, the other crawling its way back up to caress Lupin's jaw line.

"Oh," the other man moaned again, burying his injured and wound hands into Sirius' messy-morning hair.

Sirius felt a bulge in his pajama pants growing, and instantly bucked his hips against Lupin's, earning an animalistic growl from the other man, who wrapped his legs firmly around Sirius' waist and dug his heels on the backside of his thigh.

Sex was passion. Kissing _and_ sex was heat.

Kissing brought such a new layer to all of this that they had been doing. Before, sex had been sex. Just sex, no benefits, no strings attached. No lips kissing, no mouths meeting or tongues battling. Just the aggression of the wolf and the fierceness of the slayer, met in a blind frenzy. Kissing was like it brought spark, a fire, a kindling of a flame. Hotness, and then smoke.

But it didn't take long for one of Lupin's bandages to rip, fresh blood threatening to spill, dried blood already oozing out in crimson trickles. The werewolf cried out in pain, and grasped for the sides of the mattress.

Sirius gaped. Maybe roughness was not the first thing to use on a werewolf the morning after his transformation.

And maybe sex wasn't the first thing to do either.

A thick pad on Remus' thigh was lying on the floor, soaked in blood, while a bandage long enough to cover Sirius' entire leg had rolled off of Remus' arm.

"Oh my god," Sirius said, shocked, and knelt off of the other man to examine his bleeding wounds. "I completely forgot."

Feeling like an absolute bastard, Sirius hastily summoned new bandages and recovered all of Remus' injuries carefully, his fingertips gentle and tender.

"I-It's fine," Lupin muttered, his teeth gritted in obvious pain. "This isn't the f-first time this has happened to me, Black."

"It's my fault this time," Sirius sighed, sitting up the other man and leaning him cautiously onto the pillow, soothingly rubbing his shoulder. Remus sighed, his eyes closing in wariness.

"It's fine," Lupin repeated, his voice soft.

"No,_I_, of all people should have remembered." Sirius chastised himself.

"Why?" Lupin croaked. "I'm the one with the injuries. Stop blaming yourself."

"_I'm_ the werewolf slayer! You… you're too modest, Lupin."

The tawny-haired man smiled faintly. "Thank you, Black. Now come back here so I can kiss you again."

Sirius was hesitant, seeing a rather deep cut on Remus' bottom lip, but then Lupin drew his fingers into Sirius' hair, pulling him closer and giving him a soft, teasing kiss on the lips that was lighter than a hair's breath.

"C'mere," Remus murmured quietly, twisting a black lock around his finger delicately. "It's only me."

Sirius nodded slightly, before meeting their mouths softly.

It was definitely the sweetest thing Sirius had ever experienced. He had kissed girls before, but they had been rough, greedy, and much more vigorous. Lupin was too; the wolf in him was certainly hungry for passion, but the Remus after the transformation was much different. He was tender, sensitive, feeble and frail in all of his touches, but not weak. _Lupin_ was the werewolf Sirius knew. But _Remus_ was the breakable, shattered person underneath.

And it was then that Sirius realized that during all of the time he had kept Lupin captive, he never let him display the side of him that was Remus. He had almost forced Remus to become Lupin, the pugnacious and tempestuous werewolf just so he could prove that Sirius had killed a werewolf, not a person.

Frankly, he liked Remus better.

The bloodthirsty killer he was, Sirius was drawn more to the sensitive personality than the hostile wolf.

Remus apprehensively licked at the parting of Sirius' lips, who obliged gratefully.

What had happened to the feral wolf before, hungry for passion?

Sirius didn't have time to wonder, as he put his hands gently on the hips of the werewolf, softly kissing Remus back.

"Oh," Remus moaned, gripping at the back of Sirius' head and drawing himself closer. "Ohh," he repeated.

Sirius pulled back momentarily, surprisingly flushed from the simple kiss.

"Tell me about Remus." He ordered. Remus was shocked.

"You know everything about me."

"No, no, I don't want to hear about Lupin. I want to know about _Remus_." Sirius insisted, slightly breathless.

"I – what's the difference, Black?"

"Lupin is the wolf, but Remus is the sensitive one worth knowing."

Remus blinked, eyebrows raised curiously. "It's the same thing."

"No!" Sirius said frustratingly. "When you're _not_ the wolf, who are you?"

Remus sighed. "I – fine," he mumbled, "Before I was bitten, I had only been six. I don't remember much. My mum told me that I loved to read, write, and I hated the outdoors. I loved cooking, and I loved listening to people, and I loved being logical and solving people's problems … but I never could solve my own problem."

"Lycanthropy?"

"Obviously," Remus rolled his eyes. "It really did scar my life. After that incident, I was separated with my parents to live with the wolves. I couldn't read, I couldn't write, I had to be outdoors, I couldn't cook, and nobody needed listening to. I guess you can say that it changed me."

When Sirius realized that Remus had finished – his eyes slightly watery – he drew an arm around the werewolf's waist and whispering securely into his ears.

"Well, I want to bring the Remus in you back out,"

"You can't, Black, that part of my life is over with. You and Potter have proven that."

Sirius didn't stop smiling. "C'mon, Lupin. Let's go cook like you used to do it."

With that, he grabbed the other man's wrist and dragged him carefully out the door, cautious to the Lupin's injuries.

---

"So, do you have any family recipes?" Remus asked curiously, slumping down into a chair. Black tutted.

"Pssh." he admonished, "they're not _family_ recipes, they're my mother's hideous creations that she stuffed into a notebook."

"Can I see?"

"Sure," Black agreed, shrugging, as he grabbed a dusty volume thick enough to be a novel from the very top kitchen counter. He blew dust off of it irritably, dirt flying, before he brought it over to the table and sat down with Remus.

Remus flipped it open analytically, scanning the pages. Black watched as the amber orbs scoured the stained and torn papers, all with the same messy, blotchy ink scrawl.

"Hey, this one doesn't sound so bad."

Black looked over, and then shook his head. "Look at the last ingredient."

"Oh – _eye of newt?_ Did your mother actually use that?"

Black nodded revoltingly. "It was her _secret ingredient_."

Remus skipped that page hastily, squinting to decipher the untidy handwriting. "Your mother could have been a bit more careful when she was writing these… it's really hard to read."

"I know," Sirius agreed.

"Oh, well, look here. We could make cake…? It looks normal enough."

Black looked over the ingredients, a smile tugging on the corners of his lips. "Sure, why not? I've always wanted to throw flour all over you."

"You won't dare, Black."

---

Sirius was lounging back in his chair, observing Lupin with the most intent of stares, as the werewolf mixed, chopped, and fried like an expert.

"You could help, you know." Lupin hissed, and Sirius laughed.

"Yeah, but I'll ruin the cake."

"It's mindless, Black, get up." Lupin ordered, and Sirius finally dragged himself over the counter, Remus thrusting a bowl into his hands. "Mix." He ordered, and handed him a whisk.

"I didn't know I owned a whisk," Sirius said surprisingly, before shrugging and mixing away at the thick, creamy batter inside the bowl. "Mmm, looks delicious–"

"No, don't–"

But Sirius had already dipped his finger into the mixture, sucking on it with a look of pure bliss etched on his face. "You really are an_excellent_ chef, Lupin."

Remus blushed, but snatched the bowl from the other man. "You don't eat before you bake, Black." He chastised, and handed him a baking pan instead. "Grease this instead. I'm trusting you not to eat oil."

---

It didn't take long for the cake to be pushed into the oven, both men to sigh, and collapse on the couch in exhaustion from all of the bustling around.

"That was fun," Sirius mumbled, smiling satisfyingly at their achievement. Remus nodded in agreement.

"You have batter on your face, Black." Remus pointed out.

Sirius chuckled, licking it off with his finger.

It didn't take long for the fun to disperse however, as James came limping down the stairs, glaring at Sirius from the night before. There was a dark, purple bruise on his nose, reaching down to both of his checks and mouth.

"Ouch," Remus whispered. "What happened to him?"

Sirius awkwardly leaned back in the couch. "Oh… I punched him, that's all."

"Why?"

"Because he was about to _kill you_, Lupin. He knows about the Invisibility Cloak." Sirius explained wearily.

"Invisibility Cloak…?"

"Oh, yeah. How else do you think I hid you from the Ministry?" Sirius said, smiling.

"Well, I can tell that you're a good prankster. I thought that you would have done something to Ministry Officials instead of me, honestly." Lupin chuckled.

---

"Sirius, can I talk to you?"

Sometimes it surprised Sirius that James and him were still on a first term basis, even if Sirius _did_ punch the hell out of him yesterday, James and him had yelled at each other hoarse repeatedly the last week, and they had been glaring daggers through each other at dinnertime, while Lupin and him who were shagging senseless every night and even come to a degree where they could kiss and not feel absolutely feminine, still addressed each other with last names.

Sirius could be nicer to Lupin.

And a bit less nice to James.

"Yes, James?" Sirius responded icily, his arms folded.

"I want you to know," James said, not looking at Sirius, a large pack of ice on his nose. "That I don't need to call the Ministry to kill Lupin. _I_ am still a slayer, unlike you, who abandoned your job, and I am an experienced murderer. I can kill Lupin _myself_."

Silence, except for the sharp sound of more daggers coming out of both of their eyes at an alarming speed.

"Fine," Sirius muttered bitterly. "But I am also a good slayer, James. If I know how to keep my own ass safe, I can keep someone else's safe too."

"Why do you keep on defending him?"

Silence. James smirked, satisfaction slowly drifting into his face while the color quickly left Sirius'. James knew that he had hit a spot.

"Because he deserves to be saved too."

James laughed coldly, "Let me quote you, Sirius, as I remember very well that you said this not too long ago: _We don't make friends with our prey._"

"And you said that same afternoon that if there's nothing left to kill of Lupin, why kill him anyway? People who are dead inside need saving too! Those are your words, James, coming out of your mouth."

"I don't care!" James shouted, "but why are_ you_ friends with him?"

"Why – why do you care?"

James put his hands on his hips, pushing his glasses up his injured nose heatedly. "Is it because werewolves have the best sex? Have you been fucking that little werewolf?"

Sirius became as white as ice, but did not respond.

"So you have." James concluded. "I hope you're happy then. Don't you remember that werewolves mate for life?"

"I'm not fucking him, James." Sirius said, his skin boiling furiously.

"Yes you have, I see the way you look at him. Even _Evans_ thinks you're shagging him!" James shouted, and then stormed out of the way.

---

Of all of his years at Hogwarts, listening to Defense Against The Dark Arts teachers drone on and on about dangerous creatures such as werewolves, vampires, and trolls, and of all of his time as a slayer – approximately a few months, all in all – Sirius had never learned anything about werewolves. All he knew that they were hazardous, lethal things. He had never researched, studied, or even done anything to find out how werewolves behaved.

Did werewolves mates for life?

Were werewolves actually allergic to silver?

How aggressive really were werewolves before the full moon?

Scratching his head, Sirius walked back into the living room, pulling Lupin on top of him and kissing him ferociously, hands traveling down to the other man's trouser zipper.

"Mmm," Sirius moaned, put broke the kiss short. "Do werewolves mate for life?"

Lupin was rather flushed from the sudden kiss, but even more surprised by the sudden end to it. "No," he said hoarsely, his voice husky. "It's just a myth."

"Are you allergic to silver?"

"No," Lupin answered dutifully, and tugged on the collar of Sirius' shirt. "Just silver bullets, if they're shot through my chest."

Sirius didn't laugh.

He didn't need to ask Lupin the last question. He already knew the answer, after living with Lupin for so long.

"F-For such a good werewolf slayer," Lupin began, "you know nothing about your prey."

"I suppose," Sirius shrugged, and moaned uncontrollably as the tawny-haired man let his hands wander inside Sirius' boxers teasingly.

"You – you do remember that we're still in the living room, r-right?"

"I don't care if Potter walks in." Remus said, caressing Sirius' erection sensually. "And it doesn't look like you do either."

Sirius bit his lip to keep from moaning. "I don't k-know," he choked out. "James might be traumatized in shock – and then he could be p-petrified."

"I would laugh at that. I can already imagine his mortified expression." Remus admitted, smiling.

"Do – do you always talk this much during sex?"

"No," he said. "But I can, because I'm on top."

Sirius shook his head. "It – It's kind of torture, Lupin," he confessed, and slammed their mouths together to effectively shut the other man up.

Lupin ran his tongue along Sirius' lips, along with bringing the hand that was in the black-haired man's boxers to a rhythm of pumping.

"Oh – oh my god, Lupin."

Lupin ceased, his hand pausing. Sirius moaned out loud in need, desire and lust clouding over his half-lidded eyes.

"Don't call me Lupin," the werewolf chastised firmly, "I'm Remus now."

"A-All right…"

"And now it's my turn to ask something about slayers," Remus asked.

Sirius knew he was in control, as the werewolf's fingers started working again gently, and he succumbed to the light brushes of the lips on his chest. Whatever Remus asked him now, he wouldn't be more honest than if someone had dosed him with Veritaserum.

"Anything!" he groaned.

"Do you love me?"

---

James sneaked silently on the floor, wand discreetly at his hip but nevertheless prepared to aim and shoot, as he treaded softly away from the spots on the rotting wood that squeaked. There was no light, not even a faint glimmer from his wand, because this had to be_perfect_. No disruptions.

James resisted the urge to murmur _Lumos_ when he came across the next flight of stairs. He cursed quietly under his breath, watching every step he took as he climbed stairs and finally slipped on to the hall.

A cricket chirped.

It was _quite_ silent for James, seeing as usually this was the time of night that Sirius would masturbate.

James checked his watch.

An owl hooted. There was the sound of rustling sheets, a groan and a stir coming from the bed nearby, so James sneaked over to the door that had the sign on it boldly, reading_ Regulus's Room – DO NOT DISTURB_ in sloppy handwriting. The door was already ajar slightly, so James pushed it open tenderly with his fingertips.

Sucking in his stomach, James managed to slip through the door and see the faint outline of Lupin, Sirius' arm protectively around his waist in the bed, under the covers, their shoulders touching and their fingers twined.

Despite the fact that the image itself was adorable, James shoved his glasses farther up his nose and aimed his wand at Lupin. Not a twitch, not a sound.

Then –

"What are you doing here?" Lupin hissed, and James saw his elbow ready to poke Sirius in the ribs to wake him up too.

"Don't even think about waking up your boyfriend," James warned, and without further ado, he stunned Lupin straight in the chest, causing him to cry out quietly and fall limply back down onto the mattress.

Now all he had to do was grab, drag, and go.

---

Sirius woke up with his sleepy murmurs, stretching his arms and snuggling slightly closer to the warm, scarred body next to his –

Wait.

Sirius' eyes snapped open, scanning and scouring the patch of mattress next to him.

Empty.

Sirius swiftly ran his palm over the mattress cover, but it was cold. No warmth.

A rock forming a roller coaster ride in the middle of Sirius' stomach, he gulped audibly and ran out of the bed, over to his own room. _Empty_. The bed wasn't touched for days.

He darted downstairs, fumbling for the wand on his nightstand on the way.

_Empty._

A loud gong of a drum interrupted the settling thoughts in Sirius' brain, causing something dark to go off in his mind.

"James…?" he called out, furiousness growing in his voice. "_JAMES!_"

As he shuffled downstairs, ignoring the shivers in his body from the cold room and his bare chest, he found a single scroll of parchment on the table.

_Off to the Ministry with your friend,_

James 

Sirius growled, and tore the parchment in half cantankerously. "This isn't over, Potter." he snarled, and headed for the door, not bothering to change, his only attire a baggy pair of blue pajama pants.

That bastard was going to pay.

The moment Sirius would actually find him.

_Shit_.


	9. Chapter 9

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Harry Potter.

Sirius ran out onto the pavement, feeling an icy breeze chill up his skin, goosebumps covering his arms. Shivering, he shut his eyes and apparated away, to the Ministry.

A moment later, he arrived in front of the Muggle phone booth. Cursing, Sirius snarled at the booth. He had never used the Muggle way to get into the Ministry.

However, it did not take long for Sirius to slide down the rickety booth like an elevator hanging on a thin rope.

Taking a deep breath, Sirius ran out of the booth and fought between all of the crowds of people, talking rapidly about important business matters. Sirius bumped into a rather elderly man, who whipped around to face him crossly.

"Excuse you!" the man yelled.

"Sorry, gotta go!" Sirius shouted over his shoulder. It wasn't until he left the swarm of bustling people that the workers started noticing his extremely peculiar attire. Blue pajama pants and no more. Barefoot, chest-clad, only carrying a wand, Sirius was gaining some indignant stares and buzzing murmurs in his direction. A rather chubby witch was appalled, frozen in shock when Sirius had darted past her.

"What's your problem, lady?" Sirius asked heatedly, running farther away and screeching to a halt on the heel of his foot in front of the lift.

It opened with a soft _bing_, tall men in suits raising their eyebrows at Sirius. He scoffed at them, wishing slightly that he had at least brought a jacket. But he couldn't worry about that now.

Superman fought in a cape, Spiderman fought in stiff tights that showed every bump and nook, and Merlin fought in star-patterned robes.

Sirius Black fought in pajama pants.

_Blue_ pajama pants.

He was his own courageous, perverted hero.

Smiling slightly to himself, Sirius punched the button to the floor where he previously worked, pushing another worker aside, who _hmphed_ huffily. Sirius didn't bother to apologize, as the lift was already raising them higher up in the Ministry. The doors slid back open, taking Sirius with them as he dashed out into the first hallway.

It didn't take long for Sirius to burst into the office of his previous boss, windswept and breathless.

The Minister looked up from his desk slowly, glasses balancing precariously on the edge of his nose. He pursed his lips.

"Hello Black," he said stiffly. "Do you realize that this is _not_ strip club?"

Sirius brushed that aside hastily. "Where's James and Remus?" he barked commandingly.

"Mr. Potter? Oh, he took the werewolf down the hall into the Abolishment Room. They are probably executing Lupin now."

Sirius' jaw fell down to the floor, a trickle of ice water falling down onto his heart.

"W-What?" he asked shakily.

The Minister smiled smugly, filing some papers together. "Yes. Nice to finally get rid of that beast, isn't it? So satisfactory… I mean, slayers usually find the _murdering_ part the juiciest."

"I'm no slayer, Minister." Sirius corrected, his hands trembling.

"Yes, but Mr. Potter is. He has stayed loyal to us, and therefore he now watching the killing of Lupin right now."

Was it too late for Sirius to rescue Remus? His mind was battling away with Sirius' heart, who was telling him that there was still time, there was still a chance, and his mind was thumping down the cold, hard truth – that Remus was probably already dead.

"No," Sirius said, gritting his teeth, "you're lying to me."

Rushing from the office and making sure to _accidentally_ knock over an open filing cabinet on his way, Sirius ran headfirst into the Abolishment room down the hall, rustling the door handle.

It wouldn't budge.

Panic filling Sirius inside and out, he pounded on the door.

"No," he breathed. "No, no, no, please, no, _please someone open the door_!" pounding furiously, Sirius yelled angrily through the door. "_NO!_" the 'o' in his 'no' dragged out for a terribly long time, until he slumped against the door – defeated.

"Noo…" he murmured. "_Alohomora!_"

It stayed shut.

There was a strangled shout heard from inside. Sirius' eyes widened.

"_Reducto!_" he yelled, and in a thousand splinters, the door blasted out of the way. Splitting straight in the middle, Sirius covered his face with his arms to avoid getting pierced in the face with a deadly splinter.

Dead silence, and then Sirius ran over broken down door, into the dreaded Abolishment Room.

_Nobody_.

Silence, and more silence.

Slightly shocked, Sirius decided to crash on through the Abolishment Room – there were more doors to cover in here – so he dashed on and burst on into the next room – dark and unused.

Back into the Abolishment Room, fear starting to eat him whole.

Remus was probably gone. And then James had won. James would certainly move out of Grimmauld Place and keep on murdering werewolves one at a time, while Sirius would simply mourn over the loss of Remus.

Sighing, he kicked the wall in the Abolishment Room and cursed loudly. It might as well be over.

---

"Did you expect me never to wake up?" Remus asked irritably, attempting to free himself from Potter's grip. There was blood on his trouser leg, running down from his nostril, hairline, hip, and knee. He was limping, but tried not to let Potter see.

"No," Potter said grimly, smirking. "I knew you would. But it's too late now."

Remus tried fruitlessly to rattle off the hands that were firmly grasping onto his wrists. Reluctantly, Remus trudged on in the dark halls of the Ministry.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Somewhere," Potter responded bluntly. "Where we can kill you and Sirius can't find you."

Something wet and drippy threatened to fall from Remus' eyes. He blinked hastily. "How do you know that Sirius won't find you?"

"Oh, he will. But it'll be too late then."

His heart falling at rapid speeds, Remus closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, and then elbowed Potter as hard as he could manage in the ribs.

His grip on Remus let go, but the tight ropes that were wound around his wrists were still strong. Potter doubled over by the hall, and Remus knew right then that if he didn't make sure that Potter was unconscious, he wouldn't get away.

Out of nowhere, from a strength that he didn't possess, the werewolf kicked James straight in the groin, watching his eyes roll out of sight before he blacked out in pain.

Remus, alertfully staring around himself for perhaps raised wands or many officials running towards him, found nothing but empty hallways waiting for him.

---

Sirius had tear streaks down his cheeks, damp on his skin but undetectable from far away. Crying was not a superhero thing, but Sirius wasn't trying to be one anymore. He had lost. The game was over. The werewolf was dead. The slayer was dead inside.

Giving a long, rattling sigh, Sirius leaned against the wall beside the remains of the Abolishment Room door as his eyes fluttered closed.

He was asleep within moments.

---

Remus sneaked along the walls. By now he knew that officials would be looking for him in seconds if he wasn't careful. So footsteps of caution and silent treading were important to the young werewolf. But it wasn't that easy, with the fact that he was dragging James along behind him with his tied wrists – not an easy feat.

Taking a deep breath, he rattled at his wrists. His bones strained against the ropes, who bruised his skin purple. He groaned in pain, but kept on pulling against the ropes. He wouldn't get very far without the use of his hands.

Another tug. Something ripped.

Remus could feel all of his strength leaving him, especially as he realized that there was a trail of blood dripping out of his pants and that he had lost quite a bit of it too. The gash on his thigh was running at the moment, just resulting in a serious limp and tiredness that was sneaking up on Remus. He couldn't go on much further.

But one more pull of werewolf strength that seemed to come out of nowhere, and Remus was broken free of the ropes. Gasping in tiredness, he turned to see James' unconscious form on the floor – his wand sticking innocently out of his trousers.

Remus was not a pickpocket, but when it came to live to die within moments, he knelt down and snatched up the black-haired man's wand.

---

With a gasp for a start, Sirius awoke from a dream; sweat dripping down his forehead onto his smooth black strands of hair.

Not a dream – a nightmare.

A nightmare where werewolves were having their heads and limbs cut off of themselves with kitchen shears by James.

Breathlessly, Sirius smoothed his hair back and staggered up, stumbling slightly. His legs were no longer working properly. They were rubber poles – just limp like sausages. Not meant for walking. _Certainly _not meant for running.

"Have you seen James Potter? Minister was thinking about promoting him." A voice said suddenly, making Sirius spring up alertfully. Two Ministry workers, conversing loudly were passing him, oblivious to the wide-eyed and panting man pressed against the wall.

"He came in the Ministry this morning with a werewolf! Ghastly things, really."

Sirius snarled. James was in the Ministry – with Remus, obviously. But he still could have time to find him in the Ministry.

Even if it was multiple stories high and miles long – Sirius was a superhero.

He ran, darting in the first hallway he could find.

But as superheroes do have, Sirius ran into an obstacle, someone running just as frantically as him towards the lift, with a terrible limp, the opposite direction as Sirius was going.

One crash of skin and bang of foreheads clashing together, and Sirius was moaning aloud in pain.

"Hey! Watch where you're–" Sirius stopped mid sentence, seeing his very own werewolf lying on the floor and groaning. "_Remus!_ Oh my god – Remus!" He knelt down in a frenzy, pressing his clammy fingers to Remus' cheek, caressing the side of his face gently.

"Are you all right?"

"Sirius," Remus croaked, and only then Sirius saw all of the bruises and cuts along the other man's body, "We need to get out of here. _Please_."

Desperately, he extended a bloodied hand to his chest.

"Remus!" Sirius cried out, wishing for the other man to stay conscious. But between the time he had been running and escaping from James he had lost a lot of blood. "Remus, please, don't die–"

"I'm not going to die, Sirius," Remus said hoarsely, eyelids halfway closed. "But you need to be strong. You need to bring us out of here. You can do this, I can't."

"No, no – Remus, stay awake!" Sirius pleaded, planting a delicate kiss on the other man's lips. He furled his arms underneath Remus' shoulders and knees, pulling him further up from the floor. "C'mon, we just have to get out of the Ministry–" Sirius was trying hard to ignore the trickle of blood that was running out from underneath his thigh and onto his slightly torn pants.

"I'm s-sorry, Sirius…" he murmured quietly.

"_No!_ Just – please, if you close your eyes, what if you never wake up again?"

But Remus' eyes were already closed.

"I love you, Sirius," he mumbled, before he was entirely limp and lifeless in the other man's arms.

Sirius gave a long, deep sigh of stress, realizing that he was now alone. He could walk out of the Ministry without a turn of the head – well, that wasn't true, he was still only wearing his blue pajama pants – but with Remus he couldn't get out without a fight. An unconscious werewolf that was in the hands of the Ministry actually managing to escape? That would be a first.

But he had promised Remus that he would bring them both out safely – not letting Remus here to die. Remus was probably softly unconscious in his slumber, unaware of the thick tension wafting around Sirius – but his dreams must have been filled with thoughts if he would even wake up again.

Sirius needed to make sure that he would.

Wiping the remnants of tears off of his eyes, he hauled Remus up gently; realizing that since James had kidnapped him in the night he was wearing his pajamas too, but at least he also had a shirt. Tenderly, he heaved Remus over to the lift and hastily pressed the button.

Several wizards shuffled out, grumbling, but most of them didn't even realize Remus, hanging unconsciously next to Sirius, who ushered in breathlessly, Remus' arm draped over his shoulder as he kept him up by the waist securely.

Once the lift clattered to a stop on the first floor, Sirius continued heaving the werewolf along. Here, however, more people were intrigued by the half-naked man hauling around a bleeding man. A few more excruciating steps to the door and he would be out. Could it really be that easy?

Of course not.

"Once I found your friend James lying unconscious on the floor when I was taking a small trip to the restroom, he woke up not to long after my reviving charm and told me everything. It was only reasonable of me to wait for you."

Sirius froze, looking up at the stony and smug face of the Minister.

"James betrayed me."

The Minister ignored him. "You're not going to get out of here, Sirius," he drawled, "With a flick of my wand, I can get every official in this building run to my side."

No hesitation, no tentativeness. The wand flicked. This wasn't a game anymore.

Loud sirens went off, blaring every second. Sirius recognized the sound from trumpets hitting the wrong tune. A memory of Regulus practicing the Muggle instrument years ago in his room was flickered back into his brain briefly.

"The door is right there." Sirius pointed out, and looked behind himself alertfully. No one there yet to attack him with samurai swords and pitchforks, but the sirens were starting to get more frequent and hurt Sirius' ears. He gaped as he watched the Minister calmly plug his ears with bits of cotton. Smirking, he smiled.

Sirius' arm was starting to get sore from holding Remus for so long. He desperately wished that the other man would wake up now, but he was still hanging limply in his arms like an old and forgotten rag doll.

Now he could hear doors bursting open, lifts binging impatiently, and footsteps thundering on the floor. In instinct, Sirius raised his wand at the Minister. There was a flicker of panic in the old man's eyes before he kept on smirking satisfyingly. Sirius could almost read his mind.

_You've already lost this battle, Black_.

A green curse was sheering past Remus' shirt by a centimeter. Sirius yelped, turning around to see more than a hundred workers firing their wands.

Sirius whirled around entirely, attempting to backfire all of the curses and send every spell and charm he ever knew at these officials, but more and more were bursting out of stairs and lifts.

_We've won, Black, just hand over the werewolf_.

But Sirius wouldn't give up.

Superheroes always won battles.

_Muggle_ fighting was the only way to get out of the Ministry. Fists and fingers, knees and feet – Sirius could be a hungry street cat if he wanted to be. But only one fist would be thrown. He knew he couldn't karate chop down all of the men in front of him, but the only real obstacle in his course was the Minister.

He never saw it coming.

Sirius' fist came out of nowhere, colliding onto the face of the Minister with a crunch of bones and skin breaking. Robes flying, the Minister fell to the floor and cradled his nose away from the raging fight.

Yelling, Sirius ran out of the doors, dragging Remus along as fast as he could muster. The officials were running furiously after him, but it was too late. The moment his foot hit the smooth pavement of the outdoors, Sirius apparated both him and Remus away with a pop.

The superhero had won – he had defeated the battle.

And he had gotten his girl. Or in this case, his guy.


	10. Chapter 10

Sirius was breathless and panting when he arrived at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Remus still hanging on his arm limply.

He hauled Remus and himself up the crackling, stony steps and grasped at the handle. He looked over his shoulders, paranoid for officials popping up on his front yard. But it was an empty and silent street, the entire neighborhood quiet with the exception of some noisy kids on the sidewalk.

Fumbling with the door, Sirius let out a sigh of relief when it opened. He hurriedly deposited Remus on the nearest item of furniture – the couch – before he rushed over to the kitchen to grab a rag and dampen it under the faucet drip.

Hurrying back over to the werewolf, he gently undid the buttons on his shirt and pants. He removed Remus' clothing with the exception of his boxers for better access to his wounds. Mopping at the blood with his rag, he felt Remus stir slowly underneath him.

Sirius sighed in relief, brushing the tawny hair out of the other mans eyes as he caressed his forehead.

"How are you doing?" He mumbled, and without a response, he hugged the other man tightly to his chest.

"Ow." Remus' muffled voice said into Sirius' coat-covered shoulder. Hurriedly pulling himself back, Sirius mentally smacked himself for the obliviousness to the gash on Remus' chest.

"Oh! I'm _so_ sorry!" Sirius mumbled hastily, "Does it hurt much?"

Remus grimaced from pain as he sat up on the couch, but shook his head nonetheless.

"N-Not much. What happened? I don't remember."

"That's because you were unconscious, Remus," Sirius explained softly, chuckling, "I hauled you away to the lift and we would have left unnoticeably if James hadn't ratted us out to the Ministry. The Minister was standing in front of our only escape route."

"What was our escape route?" Remus inquired groggily.

"The door," Sirius said simply, sighing, "but then all of the officials came along and starting firing curses at us. One of them nearly burned your shirt off! Anyway, after I punched the Minister I ran. I apparated us away."

Remus took a long, deep and heaving sigh. "Wow. I'm proud of you, Sirius. I would be in the middle of my own beheading right now if it wasn't for you. You saved my life. You're… you're a real hero."

Leaning up, Remus tenderly put his arm around Sirius' shoulders and pulled him into a gentle, one-armed hug.

"It's not all over yet, though," Sirius reminded him. "James will be looking for me, and the Ministry too. We may need to run."

"I'm sorry Sirius, but I'm not in a condition to do that right now." Remus said sternly, gesturing to his limping leg and injured body.

"I know; we can apparate! But we can't stay here."

Remus closed his eyes. Sirius feared that Remus was going to shout at him and limp away from the house, but what he actually said was much worse.

"This is my fault. Nobody would be after you if I wasn't a werewolf. If I wasn't there, you wouldn't be suffering and having to run from the Ministry. You would have kept your job. You would have kept your best friend. This entire mess is all my fault. The only solution for this all to go away is for me to leave."

"Remus,_no_, you don't have to do this!"

"No, I have to!" Remus insisted loudly. "You don't understand, Sirius! All my life, my lycanthropy has stopped me from doing the things I wanted to. From being with the people I love. I wanted to go to school and learn all about magic – but with werewolves being hunted by the Ministry it would be impossible to go to a school. That's what my mum had told me. I wanted to get a job. Become an Auror and fight off Voldemort – but turns out if I want to be an Auror I would have to kill my own kind. I wanted to make my parents proud. But inside I just became their _job_. Their job that couldn't ever be done or finished or fixed. There wasn't any hope for me anymore. The only thing I've accomplished in my life is making other people suffer. The only way to avoid people suffering is to leave them be. I was stupid to think that I could live a simple life, when I'm obviously not a normal person."

Sirius ran a hand through his hair. "There's hope now," he whispered, and continued wiping at Remus' wounds. "And besides, you're not going anywhere with these wounds soon."

"Don't try to do the right thing, Sirius. My parents did that too, and nothing changed. You can't change who or what I am." Remus said, sighing.

Sirius leant forward. "I don't want to change you," he said, smiling. "I like you how you are. You've never hurt anybody, you've never been a disappointment to anybody, and you've certainly succeeded in being awesome." Still grinning, he brushed at the blood on Remus' shoulder.

"Look, first thing to do on my list is leave _you_ before I do any damage."

"You'll only do damage if you leave me, Remus. The first thing to do on _our_ list is to go to Diagon Alley when you feel better and get you a wand."

---

A day later, with the help of some weak healing charms, Remus was almost restored to new. Sirius was almost constantly at the window, watching for James or some other Ministry officials coming to search for Sirius and Remus. But obviously, when the day had finished, Sirius had come to the realization that no one at the Ministry had thought either Sirius or Remus stupid enough to return back home. Humorously, Sirius had contemplated a whole group of officials scouring empty deserts and prairies for the two men.

"Look, if you're so paranoid about people coming here, how the hell do you think we would pull off going to Diagon Alley?"

"Don't worry," Sirius responded slyly, smiling mischievously and patting Remus' hand for reassurance, "I have a plan for that."

Remus furrowed his eyebrows, the issue obviously not settled.

"I don't think this is a good idea. We should remain in the house."

"Are you grounding us?" Sirius asked, smiling.

"I'm grounding _myself_." Remus replied firmly.

"C'mon, we fix up your wounds a little bit, put you in some yummy leather pants and you'll be a new man. No one will recognize you."

"Let's just skip that leather pants part." Remus said casually, stretching in his seat.

Sirius pouted. "All right then. But you would look sexy, you know."

The tawny-haired man sighed. "Sure…" he said doubtfully, and sat down on the couch next to Sirius. Closing his eyes, he let his head fall against the headrest.

"You tired?"

"Mmhmm." Remus murmured. He opened his eyes again when he felt Sirius' soft fingers grabbing his hand and stroking his palm. "Something wrong, Sirius?" he mumbled.

Sirius shook his head, scooting closer to the werewolf. "I… I never got to tell you how I felt about you in the Ministry."

"Oh? And why not?"

Sirius chuckled, looking at his lap. "Because you passed out before I could say anything."

Remus laughed. "So how do you feel?"

The black-haired man smiled, his lips twitching into a flicker of a grin. He leant over and gave Remus a soft but intense kiss on the mouth, using his other hand to cup Remus' neck. Pulling away, Sirius whispered:

"I never got to tell you that I love you."

Remus' eyes widened, but he pulled away a second later. "Wait a moment. Just the other day, when we were on the couch, I asked you if you loved me–"

"And I replied with an 'I don't know'." Sirius said, sighing. "And I _didn't_ know. I guess it's not until someone that's close to you is put to danger's test that you realize that… wow… just that they mean a lot to you. You don't know what you have until it's gone."

"Aww." Remus said, giving Sirius' hand a squeeze. "But I'm not gone."

"But you could have been!" Sirius persisted. "Death practically had you speared on a stick!"

The other man laughed, raking a hand through Sirius' black, untidy locks. "Sirius. Why the hell did you fall in love with me?"

"I…" Sirius blanked. He had no idea how to answer this inquiry, or where it came from. "Just because I do. Don't expect a sappy answer like _your eyes sparkle like the sun_ or _your voice is as sweet as honey_ because I don't love you for that stuff. I love you for who you are. I love you for what you've made of me."

"I've made you an unemployed, homosexual, werewolf-loving, ex-best friend."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "You've made me a better person too. I don't care about any of that other stuff. Now why the hell did you fall in love with me?"

Remus chuckled. "Do I even have to say anything? Look in the mirror, Sirius. Look at your past, and look at who you are. You're gorgeous, you're sensitive, and you care _a lot_."

"Don't you remember all of the stuff I used to say to you?"

Remus shrugged. "I'm surprised you brought that up." He said dryly. Sirius rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"I don't think I ever apologized."

"I think you did somewhere in between the fifth and seventh night of sex." Remus reminisced, furrowing his eyebrows and staring at the ceiling.

"I love you." Sirius mumbled.

"You just said that." Remus said.

"Yes, I guess I just want you to know for sure."

---

The next day, Remus had been encouraged into a pair of rather tight pants by Sirius, with some persuasion. They had spent some time in front of the mirror as Sirius tried to heal Remus' scars.

"Sirius, they're _werewolf scars_. They don't heal."

Sirius frowned. "Hmm, well what about some makeup to cover them up?"

It was almost afternoon by the time they had a small coffee break and apparated to Diagon Alley. They were just walking through the bustling crowds of people, Sirius dragging Remus through the mass as they approached the wand shop.

"I don't know about this, Sirius…"

"Well, I do. After this, I'll teach you how to apparate."

Remus smiled subconsciously, ceasing his walking.

"What's wrong?" Sirius asked, noticing that Remus hadn't moved.

"Nothing, it's just… thank you, for going through all of this trouble for me."

Sirius shrugged. "You said it was pretty important to you to be Remus, not Lupin the Werewolf. I want you to a normal life, and this way you'll have one."

Encouragingly squeezing Remus' behind, Sirius pushed the other man into the Ollivander's Wand Shop.

The bell on the door tinkled precariously as they walked in, Sirius in tow of Remus. The dusty shop was silent except for the sudden, loud greeting of the manager.

"Hullo!" the man shouted over his musty desk, stepping up to Remus and Sirius swiftly. His cloak was four inches too short for the man, but with good reason as the dust on the floor would sweep up profusely on the expensive, velvet robes.

"Ahh, so we have a wandless wizard?" the manager asked, pointing to Remus.

Sirius nodded for his lover. "Very much so, Sir. We were hoping you could help…?"

"Of course!" the elderly man said eagerly. Gesturing to Remus, he stepped forward. "So, young man, have you had a wand before?"

Remus nodded. "Yes."

"What happened to it?"

"It was… stepped on, several years back."

The wandmaker grimaced as though it pained him to hear such stories, and he shuddered subconsciously. "Well, it's water under the bridge. Time to get you a new and improved wand!"

The man shuffled over to the shelves before he examined several boxes. "Now tell me, friend, what is your name?"

"Lupin." Remus replied curtly. "Remus Lupin."

"Ahh, the Lupins. You're a half-blood, are you not? I give no care to how full of a glass you are, but I do remember getting a wand for your father not too long ago. Never saw a mother of yours."

Remus nodded uncomfortably.

"As a matter of fact, weren't you the young boy who was only four when you were brought in? Beautiful wand, almost twelve inches?"

Remus shrugged. "I don't remember it much."

The wandmaker nodded, before he shuffled back over to the shelves. "Well, then I don't need to take your measurements again. Just come on over here to this shelf, and try this one. Resembles your father's wand."

"How about we find a wand that resembles mine?" Sirius offered eagerly by the door.

---

"Thank you, Sirius." Remus said gratefully, staring avidly at his wand.

Sirius wrapped an arm around the other man's shoulders, pulling him closer. "You're welcome. You deserve a wand, after all."

"I love it." Remus said admiringly, stoking down the handle of his wand. "It's… mine."

Sirius laughed. "You sound so possessive."

Remus shrugged. " I guess. It's just… I haven't been able to call something mine in a long time.

"That's not true! I'm yours!" Sirius said indignantly.

The tawny-haired man laughed, tugging on Sirius' hand. "That too."

---

"_No_, you focus on the hoop, not on yourself."

"But I'm the one trying to get into the hoop."

"So you focus _on the hoop_." Sirius said pointedly, lounging against his chair with a sigh.

Remus shifted, swaying on his spot. "Aren't I supposed to be in the hoop and trying to apparate out?"

"No, that's too easy! And besides, _outside of the hoop_ is a rather broad subject. You could end in Siberia for all I know, just because that's outside of the hoop!"

"Fine!" Remus said, and closed his eyes. As much as he wasn't fond of depriving himself of his vision, this required concentration, something rather hard to find when Sirius was staring at him.

"Just relax, Remus." Sirius advised soothingly.

"Am I moving into the hoop?"

"No."

"Well, have I moved into the hoop?"

"Um, no…" Sirius said, and shook Remus' arm to get him to open his eyes. "Look, you don't have any drive to the hoop! Why don't you try to apparate onto my lap, eh?"

Remus rolled his eyes as Sirius smirked suggestively at him. "I think I'll stick with the hoop."

Closing his eyes again tentatively, it wasn't a surprise to Remus when he felt Sirius yank him onto his lap, laughing.

---

"Mr. Potter, are you telling me that you did _not_ manage to contain the werewolf because he kicked you in the crotch?"

James was sitting the chair on the other side of the Minister's desk, sobbing uncontrollably as he clutched at his rib and held a warm waterbottle to his crotch.

"Minister," James panted breathlessly. "Would you like me asking you why you didn't manage to catch Sirius and an unconscious Lupin?"

"Black has a sturdy fist and a good aim." Rearranging himself in his large, throne-like chair, the Minister winced slightly as his face twitched. He held his bloodied cloth tissue closer to his nose, wiping away the trickle of blood underneath his lips.

"You had over three hundred Ministry officials to your aid!"

"Yes, and they all had poor aims and feeble fists." the Minister said, sighing. "Now tell me exactly what happened with Lupin, Mr. Potter. How did he escape?"

James sniffed pathetically, moving the waterbottle slightly. "Can you heat this thing up again, Minister?" He pushed the bottle onto the desk, which the Minister heated up again with a flick of his wand. "All right then… well, I had Lupin tied up and he was raving on about Sirius… I told him that he would never see Sirius again and so then he elbowed me in the stomach and practically broke one of my ribs–!"

"Ah." The Minister said, stopping James as he raised one hand. "That was your problem, Potter. Never mess with a man in love and the man he loves."

James was silent. "Lupin isn't in love with Sirius." he said quietly.

"Mr. Potter, you do not risk your lives for the ones you are infatuated with, and that is something Black and the werewolf obviously displayed. Anyway, carry on with the story."

James swallowed uncomfortably. "Well, at that point I was on the ground–"

The Minister snorted, tutting. "A mere _poke_ in the ribs and you're down? Clearly I chose the wrong slayer to execute a werewolf…"

James gaped. "Excuse me, Minister, but Lupin did not just _poke_ me!! He practically broke my rib!"

Pursing his lips, the other man crossed his arms but was silent nonetheless.

"Anyway," James said fixedly. "I tried to get my wand and kill the damn bastard at that point, but he was already swinging his foot at my crotch! Besides the inexplicable pain that's all I remember. What happened with you?"

The Minister drew himself together, straightening his jacket. "Black was heaving Lupin down the halls by the time I got downstairs. He was panting like a dog, so obviously he wasn't very fast, so I had time to get in front of the door. The officials came running afterwards. Black was still confident though, rambling on about how you had betrayed him… one of the officials almost caught the werewolf on fire and that would have been the end of our problems as we know it, but then Black decided to punch me in the face. With me out of the way, they ran out and apparated away, as I'm told."

This time, it was James' turn to snort. "Minister… one, _tiny_ prod in the nose and you're down? Obviously they chose the wrong man to be Minister…" Putting his hands on his hips crossly, James shoved his glasses up his nose.

The Minister scowled. "I can take that waterbottle away from you, Potter."

"No! You can't!" James pleaded, groping for the waterbottle.

The other man laughed loudly.

James, still grabbing his rib, questioned: "Why didn't you use a healing charm on yourself?"

The Minister straightened his jacket again. You could never straighten anything too much. "If you must now, I was never quite good at healing charms."

"Ah, me neither." James mumbled embarrassingly.

It was then that two officials knocked loudly on the office door, and without waiting for a greeting they burst in, looking rather wild and windswept.

"Minister! Are you all right, sir? What happened?"

"I'm afraid you missed that speech by a few minutes." The Minister said. "Just heal the nose. And mouth." He pleaded.

The official did so hurriedly, then turning to James to do the same.

"That crotch of yours will still hurt a bit, seeing as there wasn't much injury done to it as more or less… crushing."

James grimaced, before he nodded to the official. "Thanks."

The officials bustled out of the office. It was then that the Minister tossed his soaked and bloodied napkin into the trash and leant across his desk seriously. His glasses were perched on the tip of his nose.

"Potter," he addressed. "You do know what you're assignment is now, right?"

"Of course." James said, smiling maliciously. "Find Sirius and Lupin."

"And if you do," the Minister said importantly, "you kill them both."


	11. Chapter 11

James' assignment was simple enough to command, and perhaps even draw out into action, but certainly not when you were a wandless wizard. Lupin had taken his wand that morning in the Ministry after he had fallen unconscious, and of course the damn bastard hadn't been polite enough to return it.

There's not much harm you can do without a wand, especially if you're fighting against two not-so-much-wandless wizards. But James wasn't going to complain to the Minister. He had done enough damage already, and he was sure mentioning the fact that his wand had been stolen by the werewolf himself was going to get him fired.

But of course, he wasn't going to kill unarmed. An old, battered bat in hand, James approached his previous home and approached the window. He was sneaking now, the only thing in sight when you looked out of the window being a messy tuft of black hair. He hurried along and peered inside, holding his bat at his side discreetly.

It wasn't quite as dramatic as he had thought when he stole a glance into the house. There was no crime scene. There weren't even people.

"Fuck." James muttered under his breath. The Minister had warned him of this. He had said, not less than a day before, that it was fruitless to look for Black and Lupin in their home.

"Even they, Potter, are not that daft to return to their home. They probably fled the city." The Minister had advised.

But James wanted to prove himself of his capabilities of a werewolf slayer. Werewolf slayers _found_ people. Werewolves, to be more specific, and that was quite easier than regular humans, as they hid in holes in graveyards and caves hidden in mountains. For all he knew, Sirius could have taken Lupin and apparated away to China.

In rage, James crashed his bat against the window. Shards of glass fell into the grass and pierced into the dirt. It was then that James heard a cry of surprise from within the home.

"Oh, shit!" James hissed to himself, and was prepared to run or hide. Fighting was certainly not an option.

Throwing himself into the uncultivated bush by the stairs, James held his bat over his shoulder. He heard Sirius' furious voice wander out of the house prominently since the window was so terribly damaged.

"What the hell happened here?!" Sirius demanded to no one in particular, sticking his head out of the window. "Remus, did you accidentally throw something against the window?"

A faint voice with a soft voice was barely audible to James, still crouching uncomfortably in the greenery. "No. Why?"

"Because the bloody window's broken!"

James was still listening for more conversation between the two men when a chirping bird landed gracefully on the edge of his bat. Squeaking cheerfully, he pranced about on the thin piece of wood.

James glared at the bird, waving the bat around desperately. Squawking indignantly, the bird flew around James' head. It pecked at his head with it's delicate but still lethal beak.

"Get away, you!" James muttered in a hushed tone, swatting his bat desperately.

"What's that noise?" Sirius murmured through the window, looking curiously in the direction of the bird. James swore madly under his breath as he ducked his head into the mash of leaves that the bush had accumulated over the years. The bird fluttered away, but not after at least one last peck on James' hair. James winced into the leaves.

"Hmm. Must have been an… angry bird."

Sirius frowned, furrowing his eyebrows, but nodded nonetheless.

"All right. Would you get me some plastic wrap, love? I want to cover up the window before all the bugs and cold comes through. We can fix it properly later." Sirius asked.

"Sure."

James had realized that he had heard all he needed to. If Sirius was going to spend time or money on fixing the window, it certainly meant that he would be staying at home and not fleeing the country with Remus. It made James almost giddy to relish in the feeling of catching his ex-best friend's lover and bringing him in to the Ministry. And the next time, he would definitely be wearing packing peanuts in his pants by his crotch.

---

Lily stirred in her sleep as she flipped over on her side. Drawing herself further into her thick sheets, Lily felt herself involuntarily shivering at the cold. Why was it cold? Why was there a draft persistently falling onto her face?

It was when she heard a loud crash and a hiss of a parade of curse words that she shot up in her bed and instinctively reached for her wand. Her reflexes took over her mind as she aimed her wand and shouted: "_Incarcerous!_" She watched in shock as her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she saw the distinct form of James Potter on her floor, tripping over his own feet as his body was bound together with ropes.

"Evans, Evans, relax, it's just me!!"

But Lily didn't relax. She didn't lower her wand.

"Honestly, you breaking in on my home is something I certainly shouldn't be relaxing about!" Lily shouted, holding her wand straight in James' face. It was then that she remembered that she was clad in only her nightgown, which caused her retreat a bit from James and hide herself in the shadow and protection of her sheets.

"Look, I know this doesn't look good, but–"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Lily shouted furiously. Her eyes wandered quickly to the forced open window – explaining the bitter draft – and to the knocked over lamp on the ground. That explained the crash.

"I needed a favor from you!"

"What? Did you think you were going to get some nighttime action?! I'm not a whore, Potter!" Lily lectured at the top of her voice.

"No, no, I swear I wasn't looking for sex!" James pleaded. "I need to borrow your wand!"

Lily's eyes widened. "Take your own!" she scoffed. "And even if, why are you visiting in the middle of the night? Trying to _steal_ my wand?"

"No! I was going to wait until morning."

"You could have waited until morning to come here too!"

"Look, just let me explain better! Untie me, please…?" James begged, attempting slightly to replicate Sirius' infamous 'lost puppy' stare.

"Don't look so pathetic, Potter." However, Lily gave in and flicked her wand to the countercurse. James immediately sprung up from the floor.

"I need to kill Black and Lupin."

Lily's eyebrows raised almost up to her hairline. "When did Sirius become_Black_? You guys are best friends?"

"Ahem," James said uncomfortably, scratching as his head. "Correction. Sirius _used_ to be my best friend. But then he chose a werewolf over me."

Lily crossed her arms. "Is that what this is about?" Sighing, Lily glanced at the clock on her nightstand. "All right, look, I can tell that this is going to be a long conversation. I'm going to grab some more clothes and we can drink some tea."

James almost pranced into the dining room at the thought of having tea with Lily Evans at three in the morning.

Four minutes later, Lily shuffled out to the dining room with a fluffy blue robe. She wandered to the counter and grabbed the kettle. Grabbing her wand, she aimed it in the spout and muttered an incantation. Water poured from the top and into the kettle.

"All right. Tea will be ready soon." Lily said, and sat down. "Now tell me, why do you hate werewolves?"

"That has nothing to do with this."

"Yes, it has everything to do with this. If you wouldn't have caught Lupin then Sirius wouldn't have fallen in love with him and you wouldn't be feeling jealous and you wouldn't have betrayed each other and you wouldn't be here right now telling me that you need to borrow my wand to kill them."

There was a tense silence. "All right, maybe it has everything to do with werewolves," James admitted. He sighed at the table. "I don't hate werewolves. I hate Lupin."

"No you don't." Lily interrupted.

"All right, I don't hate Lupin. But he did steal Sirius away from me. And… and then he was the only one I had. Sirius was my best friend. Peter never talked to us again after graduation. I think he may have even wandered over to Australia to chase kangaroos or something. But anyway, Sirius was like my safety net when everyone else left me. You hate me. Peter has forgotten about me. Lupin hates me. You hate me. What do I have?"

Lily reached over and grabbed James' hand. "I don't hate you."

"Really?"

Lily looked slightly hesitant. "I… no. I simply dislike you." Lily said tentatively. "Anyway, James, who is making you kill Sirius and Lupin?"

"The Minister."

"Do you want your friend back?" Lily asked.

"I would love to have him back."

"Would you be willing to give Lupin a chance?"

"I… maybe." James murmured.

"Then I'm going to tell you something," the red-haired woman said seriously. "I am going to give you my wand. But I'm not going to give it to you to kill Sirius and Lupin. I'm going to give it to you to kill the Minister."

Lily was surprised to see James still impassively staring at the table.

"Um… James? Are you even listening to me?"

"Yeah." James said, even though his eyes were still glued to the tabletop. "Yeah, I am. You might want to get the kettle. It's whistling."

Lily nodded, having been completely wrapped up in the intensity of the conversation. She got up sleepily, pouring tea into dainty cups.

"If you stay in this world of killing and commands by Ministers, you will never be able to get out of it again. You'd be watching your life flush down the drain." Lily sat back down, looking at James seriously. "Please tell me that you don't want to do that."

She awkwardly pushed a teacup in his direction. James stirred the spoon into the dark tea half-heartedly, staring in its steaming depths as though it had all the answers in the world in it.

"I don't feel well." James mumbled, finally looking up into Lily's emerald eyes.

"Why not?"

"Because I have to be responsible. I don't _like_ being responsible. Other people always did it for me!" James whined, his head falling into his hands.

"Drink your tea." Lily ordered in a slightly motherly tone.

But instead of doing just that, he pushed away the teacup and leant over to Lily, grabbing her face in his hands and kissing her gently on the mouth.

Lily gasped in surprise and was ready to push away James, but the young man was an emotional wreck at the moment. How could she deny and reject him at this moment? Lily may be harsh to James, but she certainly wasn't heartless.

James wasn't seeking out passion in his kiss. He wasn't even looking for Lily Evans. He was looking for comfort, sympathy, maybe a bit of encouragement. The other woman's lips were soft against his, enough to make melt his arms around her waist and never let go. It wasn't even too long until he felt Lily return the kiss and press herself closer to the other man. James didn't try to deepen the kiss. He left it simple and sweet, so when he drew back Lily was gaping at the other man.

"You didn't even use your tongue." She said disbelievingly.

"I wasn't looking for a snog." James replied truthfully, taking his first swallow of the tea. "Urghles." He complained, scowling and cringing at the cup. "Is there any sugar in this?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Never mind that," she said, and sought out James' hand again. "Just promise me something, James."

"Uh huh."

"Are you going to leave Sirius and Lupin alone and go after the Minister?"

James nodded, giving Lily's hand a squeeze. "I promise."

The red-haired woman smiled. "Thank you." she whispered, leaning over to kiss James on the cheek.

She grabbed the two teacups, dumping out the excess tea in the sink. Running water over the dishes, she looked over her shoulder curiously.

"Just tell me something," Lily said, "what the hell happened to your own wand?"

James blushed crimson. "Uhm… that's a very long story."

---

The sky was sporting a dark, pitch-black color when James left Lily's house after another small kiss. It was almost five in the morning. James buttoned his jacket up securely to avoid the bitter breeze of the night when a cold, icily familiar voice said smoothly:

"It's sad that you made a promise to Miss Evans that you'll end up breaking in the end." The Minister's eerie voice spoke stepping out from the darkness and making himself known to James.

"I – w-what are you doing here?" James stuttered.

"You told me that you'd report back to the Ministry by seven in the evening." The Minister reminded James, carrying a dangerous smirk on his wrinkling face. His entire figure was enlightened quite sinisterly as the moon was sparkling on his skin like a ghost. "You never came. I decided to see what you were up to – you may have captured Black and Lupin. I knew that you were going to explore your old home despite the fact that I told you Black and Lupin wouldn't be there. I went there, and instead of seeing you in the driveway, you were running away from the house. I followed you. I stopped at all of your stops. I followed you until three in the morning, when I listened through the door."

James was silent; frozen to spot.

"I heard of all of yours plans. And that's when I realized what a weak slayer you really are. You let your love for Miss Evans overtake your better judgement – your career. She could have told you that Lupin and Black were flying to Russia on a pink pig and you would have still believed her."

James gulped nervously, but spoke up nonetheless. "I can't see that this analogy is particularly right, Minister. Pigs _are_ pink."

The Minister chuckled wickedly. "Yes, I see. There's Potter, always trying to do the right thing. But I know that you won't kill me. You _will_ kill Black and Lupin."

"I don't think so, Minister."

"Oh, I do." The Minister said, smiling malevolently. In his purely black robes and his skin looking scarily shiny in the moonlight, James would say that he looked like the perfect criminal.

The Minister pulled a miniscule bag from his pocket, which he then returned to its original size with a flick of the wand. The bag was rather colossal in James' opinion, and he couldn't help but wonder what was in it.

"I had to make it smaller. Ten thousand galleons doesn't fit in a coat pocket, you know." The Minister said suggestively, and by the time James had recovered from the shock of the vastness of the bribe, he looked up to see the Minister's eyebrows raised expectantly for an answer.

"It's this or them, Potter."


	12. Chapter 12

Sirius certainly thought about James during the next week. Was James still thinking about his old friend? It didn't bother Sirius; he had Remus with him and that was enough, but sometimes he couldn't help but wonder if James' ultimate departure was his fault. When he contemplated the last few suspenseful weeks, he wanted to blame Remus, but he knew that it was entirely his own doing.

But he also dwelled on a couple days ago, when the window had broken and Sirius had seen a glimpse and flash of black hair peeking out from behind the bush in the front yard. It could have been James, and yet it could also have been another Ministry official.

But Sirius was simply paranoid. _Someone_ had found him and Remus, whether it was James, the Minister, or anyone in that matter. The Ministry no longer wanted to only capture the tawny-haired werewolf, but now they also had a motive to catch Sirius. Not only had he betrayed the Ministry, but he had physically attacked the Minister and got in the way of slaying a werewolf. They were both in danger. Even if a stranger of a wizard had found them, anybody would be willing to turn them in to the Ministry just to get a healthy amount of gold in their palms.

By Thursday that week, Sirius was done with waiting for a knock on the door to frighten him out of his senses. He wasn't sure if Remus was as uneasy as he was about the whole ordeal, but he certainly wasn't going to ask. However, it made him ill thinking about being found. It was better to be safe than sorry in Sirius' opinion, and so he approached Remus that night after dinner.

"Remus, I don't want to worry you, but I'm getting really paranoid."

"Why?" Remus asked licking his spoon clean before he tossed it into the sink.

Sirius sighed. "The Ministry is at our heads, I'm sure. I just don't want today or tomorrow to be the last time I ever see you. I love you, and either of us getting killed certainly seems awful – especially if we could avoid it."

Remus smiled. "Sirius, I have thought this. But don't you think that if the Ministry would think that we would be here, they would have already come here?"

The black-haired man swallowed, seeking out Remus' hand to entwine their fingers. "I think they have, Remus."

Remus' head snapped up. "What?!" he asked sharply.

"The other day when the window broke? I think it was James."

"James?! But why would he come back here?"

"Because the Ministry sent him! He probably thought that we weren't home so he could smash the window, crawl in, and wait for us to come back."

Remus breathed out deeply, looking at the table. "But he didn't. We were home. I – oh my god, we were home! He knows that we're here!" Remus cried out, standing up suddenly in a fit of worry.

"Relax, Remus, he didn't do anything. Frankly, I think that he's more afraid of us then we are of him. But – but I do think that we need to run. It's not safe here anymore." Sirius said quietly, giving his boyfriend's hand a tight squeeze. When he looked up, he was surprised to see tears in the corners of Remus' eyes.

"I… I hate this." Remus choked out hopelessly. "My life has always been like this. Whenever something good would happen, it would be _too_ good. Too good to be true. I'd always have to run. And running would make me lose me everything, always. I don't want to lose you, Sirius."

Sirius soothingly brushed down Remus' hair, pulling the other man closer to his chest. "Love, we are _sticking together_."

---

"It's this or them, Potter."

James swallowed, looking greedily at the galleons in front of his eyes. With this money, he could marry Lily – get himself a large house with owls flying around the attic. Images of his wealthy future with the charming red-haired women were overwhelming his mind, but would Lily even consider him after he would tell her that he chose money over friends? After he had broken her promise and perhaps her trust?

"Them. No – this! No no no, I choose them! Wait, maybe this – them? I don't know!" James sputtered, jumping up and down on the pavement.

The Minister rolled his eyes. "Choose _now_. Either a hell of a lot of money, or Black and his werewolf friend. Would they even take you back, Potter?" he crooned, tilting his head.

James ground his teeth together. "My friends are important to me too. I'm not a businessman at heart. However, I am a friend at heart."

The Minister sighed, checking his watch. "All right then, Potter. You chose option two. But along with choosing option two, you also chose secret option three. Now I know exactly who I'm going to kill."

James furrowed his brows crossly. He didn't fully understand until the Minister took out his wand and pointed it squarely in his chest.

"You."

James' eyes widened as his eyes fell upon the wand pressed against his heart. He was reminded suddenly of himself and Sirius doing the exact same thing to Lupin a few weeks ago. He was reminded of when he was back at school, first using his _own_ wand. He hadn't even dreamed of using it to kill back then.

James had made a realization.

It was true what they all said. Your past _does_ flash through your eyes the moments before you die, and al of your worthy memories all flicker past in the time of a nanosecond.

James was a good man. He was a good slayer, a good friend, a good boyfriend, and yet he was still here with a wand pointed to his heart. Where had he gone wrong?

And as his eyes connected with the Minister's cold, bitter ones, he knew that James wasn't going to give up without a fight.

Of all the things he was, he knew the most that he was a fighter.

James shouted out loudly, and watched in satisfaction as lights flicked on through the windows of the houses nearby immediately. And then, he had nothing else to do but grab the Minister's wand and snap it cleanly in half.

Lily was running out of her house the next second, concern etched over her face as she practically flew down the driveway.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" She commanded to the Minister, who was still staring in awe and shock at his broken wand. "You are trespassing my property in the middle of the night? What the fuck is this about?"

"He was going to finish me off because I didn't kill my friends!"

Lily looked at James for a brief moment before she snatched her own wand away from James' pocket deftly and aimed it at the Minister.

The Minister raised his hands, defensiveless. Just as James used to be, the Minister was nobody without his wand. He had no more power.

Lily shoved her wand underneath the elder man's chin, snarling. Despite her usual polite appearance, Lily looked positively nasty. Livid and cantankerous.

"Run and don't even think about coming back."

The Minister did as he was told and scurried away, but not before he gave one more forlorn look at his destroyed wand on the ground. James gave it a firm stomp, pulverizing it into the dirt as much as he could.

"That's right, Minister!" James yelled. "Get that wrinkly ass out of my life!"

With a laugh, James turned to Lily.

"You didn't decide to kill your friends." She observed quietly.

"I know. Even if it was ten thousand galleons, I'm nothing without someone else. And besides, you would never dream of going out with me if I would have chosen the money."

"True. You do know what a girl wants."

---

"Are you all packed, Remus?" Sirius called into the other room.

"What the hell am I supposed to pack, Sirius? I came here with nothing."

"Oh. Right. I forgot." Sirius said awkwardly. He zipped close his suitcase and pocketed his wand, giving one last meaningful glance around his room.

Despite all of the memories that lived in the walls, Sirius was done with this house. He pulled his bag off of the bed, rolled it to the door, and turned off the lamp in the corner. The room was extinguished into pure darkness.

Remus was waiting at the end of the hall by the time Sirius had reached him. Giving him a reassuring and gentle kiss, Sirius grabbed his hand and hurried down the stairs.

"Exactly where are we going?" Remus asked curiously. Sirius could detect a hint of melancholy in his voice.

"I don't know. Anywhere away from here. I was considering stopping at Evan's place and asking if we could stay there, but James would find us. Then I thought about stopping at Hogwarts, but that would be too risky. I think we'll just leave the country and move from there."

"All right… I'm ready."

Sirius held on to Remus as though he was attempting to squish a block of wood with his bare fingers and apparated away with a lingering _pop_.

They were leaving a lot behind, and they weren't exactly sure what they were gaining.

---

"The Minister isn't done yet. I wish you would have killed him instead of asking him to leave." James said moodily to Lily, who shrugged.

"I've never been quite that good at those big curses."

James nodded. "Did I do the right thing, Lily?"

Lily nodded furiously. "Hell yes, James! Your friends are much more important than a _million_ galleons." She brushed her fingers against his damp palm.

"_Friends_. Oh my god, my friends! I almost forgot about them!"

Lily laughed. "That's what you gave up the money for, no?" she said, grinning sleepily. "Now would be the perfect time to find Sirius!"

James nodded, a dazed look over his eyes. "Right. I – I'm going to go apologize to Sirius and Lupin. Wish me luck…?" he pleaded.

"Maybe." Lily said playfully, pecking him on the cheek politely before she impatiently pushed him towards the street. "Now go!"

James staggered onto the sidewalk, giving Lily a thumbs up before he charged off to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place for the last time.

---

James was sure that the cold had frozen his face off by the time he saw the familiar, uncultivated lawn in front of his eyes. It was barely illuminated by the bright moonlight. Still having Lily's wand in his coat, he wrapped numb fingers around it and drew it out of his jacket.

With a deep breath which came out as white puffs of icy air, James prepared himself to run up the steps and confront his friend yet again. And apologize. And James Potter never apologized, so he hoped that Sirius would understand the deep sentiment from his plea for forgiveness.

A strange feeling of sickness and nervousness lurched in James' stomach as he approached the door. He didn't want to knock; that would ruin the effect of surprise he wanted. Instead, he unlocked the door with Lily's wand and opened it slowly with freezing fingers. It creaked eerily in the quiet night, but James didn't have time to be scared. He took a step in.

And was met by an empty, dark house that certainly wasn't the one he had left a few days ago. Lupin and Sirius were gone, and James could only imagine their dead bodies lying in the Minister's office.


	13. Chapter 13

Lily had been eagerly waiting by the door all night long, knowing that after James' grand decision to apologize to his friends he would return to tell Lily everything. The red-haired girl expected James to be gone long; it was like two best friends reuniting after being split apart for years. She stayed in her bathrobe and slippers, drinking from her petite teacups. After all of the tea was gone, however, she waited silently in her chair.

James came back just when the sun was appearing in the sky with a faint glow. The doorknob rustled, sounding James' return, and Lily sprang up from her chair to hear the whole story.

James slumped in sulkily, his face brooding. That wasn't right.

Lily hurriedly put the man into a chair and stared expectantly into his gloomy eyes. Even if he was in the middle of despair at the moment, Lily wanted a story.

Obviously James didn't think so.

Lily tapped her foot and clicked her tongue. She ran her fingernails across the table.

"Uhm… soo…? What happened?"

James was quiet for a few more seconds before he said darkly: "I don't want to really talk about it."

Lily sighed exasperatedly. "Come on, I've been waiting all night! Did they not accept your apology?"

James looked up and met eyes with Lily. "I wish I would have known. But… but they weren't they. They left. They thought that the Ministry would have gotten them. Or that I would have turned them in." His lips drawing together into a thin white line, James furiously rammed his fist into the table. It shook in protest and the china clattered ungracefully on top of it. Tea sloshed out of the cups and landed on the tabletop. Lily groaned, reaching for her wand to dry the table.

"Careful, James." She said with a sigh.

"I… I lost my chance." James said silently, his expression calmer. Lily stroked his back.

"It's never too late, James. Don't be like that."

James got up from the chair, his eyes livid again. "But it is, Lily! It fucking is! You say I still have a chance, but I _don't._ I don't even have a goddamn idea as to what I'm going to do anymore with my life."

Lily also stood up from her chair. Sternly, she furrowed her eyebrows.

"Sit down!" she commanded, and James slowly sank back into the chair. "I will not tolerate this childish behavior from you! Be an adult and_think_."

Lily also retook her seat, her hands trembling slightly. She drank shakily from the tea once more, despite the fact that it had gotten cold.

"All right," James said dryly, "I'm thinking. And I'm not getting anything grand."

The red-haired woman smacked James upside the head. "Think harder!" she demanded, and rested her cheek on her hands.

There was a silence in the room, besides the previously unnoticeable ticking of the clock, which was now loud and aggravating. Lily flicked her wand at the clock, which promptly stopped.

"I got it!" Lily cried out a second later, her face lit up like a light bulb. She pulled on James' sleeve. "James, I got it!"

"What do we do? Go back in time and start over?" James asked languidly, his voice lazy. Lily hopped in excitement in her chair.

"No, no, it's much better!"

---

Remus lay awake on his lumpy bed, the sound of hail crashing again his window unnerving. His amber eyes stayed focused on the ceiling above him, oblivious to arm around his waist and steady breathing on his neck. Sirius was curled up against him, hogging the blanket greedily. Remus paid no attention to it, despite the fact that his body was cold to the bone and his face had become deathly pale.

Where was James now? Where was the Minister?

He thought constantly about if they had done the right thing; running away from home and Sirius choosing a weak werewolf like Remus over his loyal friend James.

Well. Not so much loyal anymore.

Sirius stirred next to him sleepily, muttering sluggish and soft nothings into Remus' neck in his sleep.

Remus absently trailed a hand gently up Sirius' back, letting his fingers linger for a moment on his shoulder bone. The hail furiously pitter-pattered against the brittle window.

They had stopped at the first hotel they could find. It was non-magic, something that Sirius had insisted would make them less traceable and easier to find, but Remus knew that the food, service, and cleaning would lack luster.

He had been right, but Sirius hadn't admitted to that. The acne-plagued teenager that had presumably dropped out of college that given them a rusty key at the front desk, and after walking up many flights of stairs, Sirius persistently wriggled the key in the knob and opened the door.

It's not like they had many bags. They had Sirius' three suitcases, and Remus' none. Most people would scoff at the saying of 'all you need is love' but all Remus _had_ was love. All he had and wanted to pack with him was Sirius, and since that did not need to be folded into a suitcase, Remus had no bags.

Their room was a boring beige with a popcorn ceiling, dull gray carpet and walls that were something around two inches wide. It was not hard to hear the other hotel guests from the other room, something that Sirius had no problem with, but kept Remus on the edge and uneasy.

One capacious window with questionable sturdiness was across the wall, heavy brown curtains covering it. Underneath was an assortment of Sirius' bags, all bulging and weighty.

Remus wasn't fond of the situation he was in. He loved Sirius, but he certainly didn't love himself. He remembered when he was younger, and Remus had come to the realization that it was impossible to love someone else without loving yourself, but this only perplexed Remus even more now.

He_hated_ himself. He was a werewolf, and that meant he was putting the one he loved at risk of getting caught by the Ministry. That wasn't his job as Official Lover of Sirius Black. His job was to comfort him, make him smile when he was troubled, and give him massages. Not let him lose his best friend, run away from the Ministry, and have the hide out in grimy hotels.

Remus sighed, wiping away a stray tear that had fallen down his cheek. It was then that he realized that his hands were shaking, probably out of coldness, and he pulled at the sheets that Sirius had so unrelentingly buried himself in. Sirius grumbled something as he felt the blanket being tugged out of his grip.

Remus managed to wriggle underneath the sheets, curling himself up to Sirius and reveling in the reassuring scent of Sirius' pure skin.

Sometimes, deep down but still on the tip of his thoughts, Remus wondered if Sirius _really_ loved him. If this was all just a big prank, a test, a bet with James or perhaps a scheme to turn Remus into the Ministry after he gained his trust… they were all cruel and pessimistic thoughts, but slayers were notorious for not being very merciful.

Remus frowned into Sirius' chest.

Of all of the people to choose, to love, to kiss, to have sex with, why Remus Lupin? A hopeless werewolf, capturing the heart of a bloodthirsty killer? It still seemed too surreal, too unrealistic to actually have happened.

Remus didn't want to lose Sirius. He'd never felt love after he had been living with no one but rough werewolves, hiding out in holes and running from the Ministry. Before he had been captured by James and Sirius, he couldn't remember the last time someone had loved _him_. He had forgotten what it felt like to feel affection for someone, and he hated thinking about the big what if that was always in the back of his mind.

What if Sirius had only taken Remus' heart to break it again?

Remus didn't think he could love again if that happened.

He bit his lip, worrying it with his teeth. He looked up uncertainly at Sirius, who was still deep in slumber.

To ease his unsettling thoughts, Remus grabbed onto Sirius' neck, pulling himself to eyelevel with the black-haired man and kissing him out of his sleep.

It only took a flicker of the tongue for Sirius to jolt awake, his arms blankly in the air before he wrapped them around Remus' frail frame securely, gripping his waist and kissing back with equal fervor.

"Is – Isn't it a bit late for this?" he asked breathlessly when they pulled apart, but Remus shook his eyes. He hoped Sirius wouldn't detect the presentiment and woe starting to build up uneasily in his features, but the darkness eclipsed his face from any observance.

"No," he answered surely, "it's never too late for you to love me." And with that, he pinned Sirius' arms on the mattress and pressed their lips together harder.

---

Lily put her hands in her jacket's pockets confidently, nudging James to go foreword with a push of the elbow. He did, clearing his throat as he smiled faintly at the elderly man behind the counter.

"Hi," he started awkwardly, already grabbing the money in one of his hands and holding the wand in his other. "I – I want to print something. In the _Daily_ _Prophet_."

"Are you a writer for the newspaper?" the man asked curtly, an elegant eyebrow raised in inquiry as he straightened his long robes.

"No," James said truthfully, shaking his head, "but I am a Ministry worker." He added helpfully, shrugging.

The man had still not lowered his eyebrow. "I'll see what I can do," he muttered unenthusiastically, before he finally tore his suspicious gaze away from James and shuffled about some papers. "What's the story about? What section will it be in?"

"Maybe obituary?" James chuckled, laughing at his own joke. Lily smacked him upside the head sharply. "Um, could I just get the front page?"

The man raised an eyebrow again. "What's the story?" he drawled after a long pause.

"Um, it's more like a confession than a story."

The man sighed, obviously uninterested in James. "I'll see what I can do," he repeated, straightening his collar professionally. He narrowed his lips into a fine white line sternly as he watched James drum his fingers impatiently on the counter.

"Isn't there anything I can do?" he asked, "not to bother," he added sweetly, flashing the irritated man a quick smile.

"Owl your story in, if you're so keen on it being sent in immediately. Is it urgent?"

"Sort of." James said, shrugging.

"Sort of." The man said slowly, emphasizing the words as he drew them out. "Send them to the Daily Prophet by owl." He nodded curtly to James, signalizing that the conversation was over. Lily tutted impatiently and elbowed her way in front of James.

"Excuse me, Sir?" she asked intolerantly, "can't you just print it in tomorrow's edition? If you interview Mr. Potter here for five minutes, the story will be told." She said, and with a wave of a delicate hand she pointed at James to indicate who he was.

"That's impossible, Miss, now if you could please leave the–"

Lily placed his hands on the counter firmly. "_Please_, be compassionate." She hissed, her nostrils flaring. The man stared at her incredulously for a moment before he flicked his wand at the door behind him. Someone emerged immediately.

"You knocked, Sir?"

"Yes," the old man said, snarling at Lily, "_quickly_ interview this man and his – his friend. Don't let them take long."

Lily punched James in the arm lightly, smiling eagerly. "Aren't you excited?" she asked, and James nodded half-heartedly.

"Sure…" he murmured. "I always love tearing my heart out, putting it on a platter and feeding it to the front page of a newspaper for everyone to see."

---

After a hail-enduring night, Sirius woke at the crack of dawn the next day, Remus still sleeping soundly next to him. With a smile, he leant down and kissed Remus softly at his hairline before he pulled on his clothes and left the hotel room to take a walk.

---

"This is _amazing_, James." Lily said the next day. She smiled at him encouragingly. "That bitchy old man actually let you be on the front cover." She brandished the Daily Prophet in James' face with a wave.

"Let's hope they read it," James said bitterly, sitting down next to Lily with a cup of tea. "Who knows where they are right now? They could be hiding out in a sewer, for all I know, and I doubt they'll be buying Daily Prophets."

Lily scowled. "Be optimistic, Potter." she said toughly. "You were excellent in that interview."

James sighed, setting down his mug morosely. "Right now, all I want is for Sirius to be happy. And… and I hope he is. He got his happy ending, sort of. He has his guy, and what do I have? A job at the Ministry with a bias boss who is a xenophobe, and I'm in love with a girl who still doesn't give a damn."

Lily's smile fell off of her face. "What girl?" she asked quietly.

James laughed, throwing his head back. "Are you daft?" he questioned. "You!" he licked the spoon that he had been stirring his tea with, pointing it at Lily for emphasis.

Lily's mouth formed a small 'o'. "I… I thought you were over that."

James sighed again. "Like I'd ever get over you."

The redhead gaped for a few moments, before she closed her mouth with angrily furrowed eyebrows and hit James over the head harshly.

"Ow!" James howled, rubbing at his head.

"You deserve it!" said Lily, "after all this time after school, I thought that you had just moved on. Why didn't you be cocky James Potter and bloody tell me?" she slapped him over the head again.

"Fuck, Evans!" James ejaculated, rubbing at his hair grimly. "Stop hitting me! It's not like it was my fault, I didn't want to be bloody slapped again like you always did to me in school when I asked you out."

"That's because you were a pervert driven by your hormones!" Lily retorted, "all you were looking for is sex!"

"Was I?"

"Yes!" Lily yelled furiously, and moved to slap James' hair again. He ducked, deftly avoiding her hand as it swiped the air.

"I didn't want to be rejected!"

"That didn't stop you before!" Lily said. "And I thought you knew better."

James grabbed Lily's wrist the moment she stood up to walk away. "I didn't think you had changed, all right? At least I didn't think your feelings did."

The redheaded woman huffed indignantly. "Maybe you should ask first." She sat down again, looking windswept. "Well?" she said, when James was quiet. "why aren't you asking?"

"I – oh," James said, realizing. He hastily took Lily's hand. "I apologize for not realizing that you had changed, Lily, so can I ask you out now or am I too late?"

Lily was silent for a minute, before she smiled tentatively. "I don't think you're too late."

---

Sirius whistled underneath his breath as he left the hotel and hopping over the muddy sidewalk from last night's downpour. He stuffed his hands into his pocket, ducking into an alley that he knew led to a Wizarding Pub. Reaching for his wand, he tapped at the seemingly normal wall, causing it to cave him and let him step into the pub.

The first thing he noticed was the warming smell of butterbeer, topped off with cinnamon. He skirted by the first table, breathing in the scent when his eyes fell upon a newspaper vendor in the corner.

"Get 'em cheap, Ministry slayer confesses to being a victim to xenophobia – apologizes to lost friend! Get 'em now while they last!"

Sirius bolted forward, snatching the newspaper the vendor had been waving to attract attention out of his hands. He scanned the cover, only to let his eyes fall upon James' black and white image, looking guilty as he occasionally said things mentioned in the article.

He didn't even bother paying. He crashed through the pub, back through the alley and up the hotel stairs to Remus' and his room. Remus was still asleep, and as much as Sirius regretted waking him, this was almost revolutionary.

"Remus,_Remus_, wake up, you have to read this!"

Remus mumbled incoherently before finally rubbing at his eyes and sitting up.

"What is it, Sirius?" he asked wearily.

Sirius thrust the newspaper into Remus' unsuspecting hands.

"What the fuck?" he said immediately, eyes narrowing at the words suspiciously. "Why the hell would James admit to being wrong about me? Or apologizing to you?"

"I don't know." Sirius whispered breathlessly, trying his best not to be dramatic. He ripped the newspaper out of Remus' hands. "Do – do you trust him?"

Remus was silent for a moment, studying Sirius' face for any sort of pleading. What if he _wanted_ to desperately return to James because Remus wasn't good enough company anymore? Or if this was just part of their elaborate plot to ultimately turn Remus into the Ministry?

"No, Sirius," Remus finally said firmly. "I don't."


	14. Chapter 14

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Harry Potter.

_WARNING_: Not only is there slash, but there is also slashy sex. You have been warned!

"I… I don't really trust him either."

There was a silent pause where Sirius stared impassively into Remus' face and Remus stared back, quiet, until Sirius broke into a smile and pulled the tawny-haired man toward him in a tight embrace.

Remus uncertainly wrapped his arms around Sirius' neck and breathed steadily into his neck. He could feel his trust for Sirius grow, and his confidence in the thought that Sirius would betray him slip away from him slightly. But that consideration returned to his mind a moment later as Sirius let go of him.

Remus blinked away the tears threatening to spill in his eyes. He direly wanted to ask Sirius if he _really_ loved him, what his intentions really were, and if he still cared that he was a werewolf.

"You okay, Remus?" Sirius asked concernedly, noticing Remus' far-off daze to the carpet.

"I – yes," he answered hastily, not wanting Sirius to worry, "I'm fine. I… I just… I was thinking about James."

Sirius furrowed his eyebrows. "What about him? Do you trust him or something?"

"No!" said Remus swiftly. "I was just thinking… if _you_ trusted him, that's all."

"Of course I don't! He's a lying bastard that betrayed both of us!" Sirius extended an arm and wrapped it around Remus' waist. He kissed him softly on the temple. "I love you, Remus. If you don't feel good about returning back then we won't, all right?"

Remus nodded mutely. "Thank you." he murmured, and laid his head on Sirius' shoulder.

---

It was exactly two hours and forty-three minutes after the first Daily Prophet of the day was printed that James got an owl from the Minister. The owl, carrying an official looking letter, had a sharp beak that James was worried would peck him half to death, which it did, until James irritably told the owl that it was going to see the Minister. The letter contained scribbly black handwriting, reading a few simple words:

_I am not amused by the Daily Prophet. See me immediately._

James swallowed audibly as he read the note. He contemplated going to see Lily, or even running off in fear. But instead, being the Gryffindor he was, he grabbed his wand headed with for the door with a set jaw.

---

Sirius head was laying softly on Remus' knees, his sleek black hair falling elegantly over Remus' trousers while the werewolf playing with the black locks idly.

"I've always wanted to ask you," Remus asked, shifting slightly on the couch, "what is it like at Hogwarts?"

Sirius smiled lazily, his voice languid. "It was great," he mumbled, "the first time I got there… my parents had told me to get myself into Slytherin and do whatever it takes… I didn't. I got howlers for months, but I didn't care anymore. Hogwarts had become like my home… every time I came back every September, the first day was always perfect. The food was like a never-ending Thanksgiving feast, and the ceiling in the Great Hall never ceased to amaze me…"

Remus frowned. Sirius noticed immediately and hastily tried to erase his words.

"Not that there weren't bad times! Filch, the caretaker would always loom in the hallways! He always caught James and I when we came back from quidditch practices – one time when it had been really rainy and the two of us were smearing mud all over the corridors, it took thirty-three dungbombs and seven crashed cabinets for Filch to leave us and go after Peeves."

Remus smiled faintly, brushing a strand of his tawny hair from his face. "Tell me about the good times," he said surely, "I don't want to hear about you and James getting detentions."

Sirius laughed. "That would be impossible, Remus. Detentions were two-thirds of our time there. We got detentions all the time! We were… official pranksters by the second month."

Remus chuckled, brushing his fingers lightly around Sirius' hairline.

"There was this one time…" Sirius said, still snickering, "when Snivellus had fallen for nose-biting teacups at lunch… it was still on his nose until Potions!"

Remus noticed that Sirius was no longer aware of his audience, and that the werewolf had no idea who Snivellus even was. He was too wrapped up in his story.

"James ended up getting the detention instead of me, but I still came along… that's what we did then!"

Remus nodded along dutifully, not bothering to stop Sirius.

"And James would always envy me for getting all of the girls – not that they meant anything to me," Sirius added hastily, giving Remus a short but still intense kiss. "James was after this Evans girl for all seven years… he never got her. I suspect he's still convinced that he's in love with her, but Evans is probably with another guy. I'm glad I settled down, at least."

Remus grinned at his words, dragging Sirius up by the collar and connecting their mouths firmly.

---

James rode up the lift to the Minister's office, everything but his nosehairs were sweating. Even his _ankles_ were sweating.

He opened the door to his boss's headquarters cautiously, peering in first. The Minister was leaning back casually in his chair, fingering something unidentified to James.

James entered carefully, gulping.

"Good afternoon." He muttered.

The Minister smiled, his grin sugarcoated – too much sugar. "New wand," he hissed smoothly, flipping the item about in the air.

"I – uhm – see. It's nice." James murmured uncomfortably.

The Minister nodded. "Sit." He ordered, and James did so.

"Is… is this about the Daily Prophet?" James said uneasily, swallowing and staring fixedly at the Minister's comb-over of hair.

"Yes," the Minister said curtly; no beating around the bush, "tell me, Potter, that someone decided to polyjuice potion you and feigned the interview."

"I… no." James said, feeling bolder than he actually was.

"What did you just say?"

"I said no," James repeated. "I did do that interview."

The older man jerkily scooted his chair backwards, grabbing a copy of the newspaper from his table in the corner, eclipsed by the shadows of the curtain. He straightened it out aggravatingly, pursing his lips.

"So you don't deny saying _'I admit to being a xenophobe. I may be a slayer, but werewolves don't deserve to be killed. I would quit tomorrow if I didn't need the money. My boss is just as unfair to werewolves as I was. We should give a chance to everyone, troll or vampire.'_ Well? Did you?"

James swallowed. He didn't recall mentioning the Minister, but he had been babbling almost everything with the exception of his family medical history to that interviewer.

"I… I did. I-It's true."

The Minister gripped the paper tighter. "Then let me make this easy for you, Mr. Potter. No need to quit. You are fired." With that, the man tore the paper into eighths and sprinkled the pieces on his meticulously organized desk.

"Uh…" James began speechlessly, but found no thoughts in his mind or voice in his throat.

"Just remember, Potter! Just because you aren't a slayer doesn't mean other people still are! I'll never stop killing half-breeds! They're not humans, Potter, and when you learn that _then_ you can crawl back to me." He sprayed James with spit as he roared at him furiously.

"Or maybe…" James started quietly, "or maybe it'll be the other way around."

He stood up, giving a small and curt nod to the Minister before he left the office feeling self-satisfaction more than the worry of that fact that he would no longer be getting a paycheck anymore.

---

Remus gave an edgy glance to Sirius as he made his bed with deft fingers, smoothing out the wrinkles while not taking his eyes off of Sirius.

It had been a week now since they had arrived at the hotel, and Remus was getting less and less convinced that Sirius had a plan for the two of them. He admired the decision Sirius had started out to make; simply leaving home to avoid the Ministry and James, but now what would they do? Remus wanted to know what would happen next, because it wouldn't take long for Sirius to run out of money. It was making him terribly uneasy, but he certainly wasn't going to admit that to the other man.

He would simply ask him hesitantly. Very hesitantly.

"So what are we going to do now?"

"What are you talking about, Remus?" Sirius asked.

Remus hesitated. "We… we can't just stay in this hotel room forever. Where are we going after this? Where are we getting money?"

"I was thinking… we can… well, I do have a plan." Sirius said, ruffling his hair uncomfortably.

"Yes?" Remus pressed persistently.

"Fine! I don't have a plan, all right? I have no fucking idea what we're going to do." Sirius punched the bed sheets, his expression livid. "I-I'm sorry, Remus."

Remus watched Sirius with large eyes, brimming with tears that never fell. Instead he walked forward and wrapped his arms securely around Sirius' shoulders, and immediately felt the other man return the hug. His arms automatically wound their way around Remus' waist, slipping his thumbs upwards so Remus' shirt rid up a bit. Softly, Sirius let his fingers caress the soft skin on his lower back, the rough texture of his scars unnoticed to Sirius.

"We… we will find a way." Remus reassured himself more than Sirius, mumbling into his shoulder.

Sirius wasn't paying much attention to his boyfriend's words; just the gentle murmur of his voice was enough to relax him. He brushed his cheek against Remus', licking at his earlobe before letting his lips trail slowly to the tawny-haired man's mouth. Remus emitted a whimper. Sirius smiled at the sound before he finally captured his lips and licked hungrily at the roof of Remus' mouth. They both moaned simultaneously before Sirius' hands sought out the first button on Remus' shirt and struggled to open it. They're tongues tangled together, rubbing against one another to create the best of friction that turned both men on incredibly.

"C'mere," Sirius growled, roughly pulling the werewolf closer to him. They tumbled over onto the bed, Remus landing on top. Remus smiled at the arrangement, greedily ripping the buttons off from Sirius' shirt, exposing his bare skin.

"Someone's hungry," Sirius said with a smile, biting at Remus' neck.

"I'm always hungry for you." Remus admitted, nipping harshly at the black-haired man's chest and earning a moan from him. "I love it when I'm the one to make you moan."

Sirius jerked Remus upwards, pressing their mouths together fervently. "I want you." he murmured against the werewolf's lips with heated breath.

Remus complied and urgently bucked his hips, hurrying to unbutton his own trousers. Sirius swatted his hand way, replacing his own fingers were Remus' just were.

"Let me – please." Sirius panted breathlessly, removing Remus' trousers as he felt Remus do the same for him. However, the tawny-haired man was faster and was already pulling down Sirius' boxers and thrusting his hips on top of Sirius' without any delay. They both moaned softly, gripping each other's waist and shifting to allow themselves more pleasure.

Sirius hurried up their rocking with need, becoming fiercer and brutal. Remus didn't mind; he groaned along with his boyfriend and attached their lips together desperately before Sirius pulled back to warn Remus.

"Remus – I c-can't – I'm g-going–"

Sirius yelled out as he finished, Remus not far behind. He bucked his hips a few more times before he collapsed on top of Sirius, panting onto his chest.

"I… I love you, Remus." Sirius said, giving him a sticky and sweaty kiss on the lips that Remus tiredly returned.

"I… need a shower." Remus slurred exhaustingly. "Take one with me?" he pleaded.

"Of course."

---

James knocked furiously on Lily's door, not stopping the rapping of his knuckles until they were bruising. Lily, looking windswept, finally bursting open the door.

"What_is_ it, James?" She asked, her eyes wide.

"Tell me you have a job!" he pleaded, grasping onto her shoulder.

Lily shook his hand off. "Of course I have a job!" she said indignantly.

"Tell me I can live with you!" James begged.

Lily put her hands on her hips scoffingly. "You've been practically doing that for the last week, James."

"So… is that a yes?"

"That's a _get a bloody job_," said Lily crossly. "While you live here."

"Yay!" James hugged her ecstatically. "We're gonna be roomies!"

"Please don't," Lily wrinkled up her nose. "I'm regretting my decision already."

"I'll find another job, I will–"

"I – what happened at the Ministry?" Lily asked interestedly.

James stepped inside, ruffling up his hair and furrowing his eyebrows. "Either he fired me and I quit or I quit and he fired me. I don't remember what happened first."

"I suppose he was not impressed by the article in the Daily Prophet?" Lily said doubtfully.

"No, no… but I'm glad I moved on from that. I really am. And maybe – really truly maybe – one day I'll be able to prove the Minister wrong myself."

Lily was silent for a moment.

"Lily…?"

"We_should_," said Lily confidently. "We _should_ prove the Minister wrong!"

"Lily, that'll never be possible–"

"You got me, didn't you?" the red-haired woman said determinedly, standing up firmly. "And I never thought that _that_ would be possible! We should take down the slaying business!" Briskly, she brushed her crimson curls from her shoulder.

"Oh lord."

---

Remus rubbed the towel at his head, messing up his mop of wet hair and sending a flash of a smile to Sirius. Sirius kissed him affectionally on the cheek.

"That was fun." He commented with a grin.

"What part? The shower part or the bed part?"

Sirius put his hands loosely on Remus' hips. "Both," he said. "I love you."

Remus put his forehead on Sirius' chest, gazing at the thin sheen of shower steam on his skin. If only he knew if Sirius really did love him…

"Can – can you prove it?" he muttered boldly, still not meeting his gaze with Sirius' eyes. However, Sirius had something different in mind, putting his thumb and forefinger on Remus' jaw and pressing it upwards gingerly.

"Do – do you not believe that I love you?" Sirius asked tenderly. Remus looked up tentatively into Sirius' gray eyes, and did not see the confident, glowing sense of coolness mirroring through them. A look of sensitiveness and hopefulness was in them, and it was then that Remus realized that they were _his_ eyes reflecting in Sirius', for they happened to be getting closer by each second.

"I… I…" Remus began desperately.

Sirius backed up, taking the other man's scarred hands in his.

"You can't trust me," he said, as though reading Remus' mind. Remus looked up fretfully, his eyes shining.

"I'm sorry," he said, wanting to look down but never being able to do so. "I'm sorry." He said again.

"It's… okay." Sirius told him softly. "I used to be a slayer. We're… we're _supposed_ to be rivals. I just thought that… what we've been through – we'd trust each other."

Remus wiped a stray tear from his eye. "I wish I knew what's going to happen in the future," he said, "but I don't know. And I _can't_ find out." He gripped Sirius' hand tightly. "You're all I have. I don't want to lose you. And if it all turns out to be – to be an act, then what the hell am I supposed to do? I don't think I could trust anyone anymore."

Remus felt his knees sink to the floor desperately. Sirius joined him on the floor automatically, kissing his neck softly.

"I love you," he said. "_please_ believe me."

Remus sniffed, letting his knuckles graze underneath his eye to sweep away the stray tears.

"I… I think you should go back to James," he said, "without me."

Sirius put his hands on Remus' tear-streaked face gently. "Don't tell me to do that." He said quietly, tears threatening to fall from his own face.

Remus shook his head. "No, you should," he said. "The – the other day when you were t-talking about James and you at school – he's still your friend, Sirius. You don't want to lose h-him."

Sirius closed his eyes. "I don't want to lose _you_, Remus." He told him, but Remus had already shakily gotten up and wiped the tears from his face, despite the fact that they were still pouring down his cheeks.

"You were right all along, Sirius," he said, trembling, "werewolf and slayer would never work out."

Sirius shook his head firmly. "You don't want to go, Remus!" he persuaded him, but without avail.

"Go back to James. I know he'll take you back. Just – just forget I existed, all right? You won't regret it later on. I – I just don't want to stay here to find out if this really is a joke or not. I want to leave before – before my heart breaks, Sirius."

Sirius didn't get up as he watched Remus reach for the door and leave the room. It was like the end of ends had happened, like his chance for love had been over because even Remus didn't trust him, as he watched the werewolf reach for the knob in what seemed like painfully slow motion. As if his body was nailed to the floor, it was fruitless to try and stop him.

"Don't tell me what I just did." Sirius murmured to himself under his breath.

_AN_: Don't kill me. I realize that all of you want to run to my house with knives because I just screwed up the puppy love, but all of you knew it had to happen! Things will get better for Lily and James and they'll _eventually_ get better for Remus and Sirius… but only if you want them too.

Here comes the big question I must ask, do you want there to be a happy ending?

Do you want Remus and Sirius to be together, or Lily and James to be together? Do you want both of them to be apart, or only one of them to be together? Tell me what you want to happen with this story, because everything is mapped out except the final outcome. It can go either way. I just want you to know, if you don't want Remus and Sirius to be together, Remus will probably end up not living… ooooh. Anyway, what you think counts:D


	15. Chapter 15

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Harry Potter, and nor do I own Finding Waldo.

For a moment, Sirius sat, totally immovable at his spot on the floor, tears magically stopping out of nowhere.

And then, with a bang of power that he did not possess at the moment, Sirius lunged from the floor and burst through the door, running down the musty hallway of the low-budget hotel.

The elevator _binged_. Light, echoing footsteps were faintly heard from the staircase. And then the elevator door slid open smoothly, and the padding of feet stopped as one person reached the landing of the staircase and another person walked out of the elevator.

Two maids.

Sirius groaned.

_Surely_Remus couldn't have made it past the staircases. Sirius hadn't spent _that_ long on the floor, contemplating his next move and processing what he had just let happen.

He was about to bound down the stairs in his frenzied search, when he remembered abruptly that Sirius had taught the werewolf how to apparate. Yes, he was doing it illegally, without a license, but he could still do it. Remus had broken the law before, when he had to runaway from the Ministry with a pack of a dozen other werewolves…

Sirius shivered subconsciously on the thought, scratching at the back of his head despondently.

"Shit." he muttered, and the maid sent him a dirty look before she rolled off indignantly with her cart of cleaning products.

---

James stared impassively at the five day old newspaper, slightly weathered and torn under insensitive fingers multiple times. He sighed breathily at the date in blotchy and unadorned print, slightly smudged. James wriggled the paper in between his hands moodily. It was exactly one hundred and twenty hours old, seven thousand two hundred minutes, four hundred thirty-two thousand seconds, and yet still James had not heard a word from Sirius. He had hoped that by now, he would have gotten his friend back, but inside James knew that a simple apology or a public confession would never be enough. James had let a werewolf get between his friendship with Sirius, and had gotten envious enough to betray him as well.

_Good friend I was_, James thought bitterly, throwing the newspaper onto the floor irritably. He resisted the urge to grind the brittle papers into the ground, and instead gritted his teeth and let a deep breath go through his teeth. Lily swept herself up to James, thrusting a mug into his hands.

"Warm milk," she explained as James looked perplexedly at the cup, "I heard you up and I thought you couldn't sleep. Warm milk usually makes you drowsy."

James nodded, wrinkling his eyebrows, "You heard me get up?" he inquired quietly.

Lily nodded, sleepily putting a strand of scarlet hair behind her ear. "It's two in the morning and you're crashing down the hallways. Dear god, I thought you were drunk." She admitted, and rubbed at her eyes jadedly.

"Ask me why I'm up." James asked coldly, sniffing suspiciously at the rosy mug in his hands. "Is there honey in this?"

"No," Lily answered wearily, looking up, "Why are you up?"

James smiled bitterly. "Ah, well…" he began, and jerkily brandished the newspaper in front of Lily's face. She leaned back, blinking rapidly. Lily swatted the paper away.

"If you're going to smile, then smile properly and don't look so upset," Lily snapped in a motherly fashion, "And I _can_ see the newspaper even if it's not attacking my face, James."

James sighed, and dwelled furiously on the paper by staring at it avidly. "It's been five days, Lily," he said resignedly, "_five days_. Sirius isn't coming back."

Lily rubbed his back soothingly. "Be optimistic."

James groaned. "Don't tell me that!" he shouted lividly, "I don't want to hear that everything's going to be all right! Do you know how many times somebody has come up to me and treated me like I was a child – like I couldn't handle the truth – and they would tell me something in that sugar-coated voice that everything was okay! And it _wasn't_!" James slapped the newspaper onto the table. "Don't tell me that things are going to work out! I messed up and I know it! I can't fix this one! Stop treating me like I'm a bloody two-year old, Lily!"

Lily winced as she heard the animosity and hostility dripping from James' words like a vial of venom. She sighed.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I won't lie to you. Things may become fine again, but we just have to work for it."

James sent her a nasty look, but nodded in a defeated way. He buried his head in his hands broodingly. "_Why?_" he cried miserably. He shot up for face Lily. "_Why_, Lily, why the fuck do I deserve this? Why?"

Lily sighed. "I don't know."

"_Why?!_" James commanded. Lily remained silent, and that wasn't enough of an answer for the dark-haired boy. Glasses askew, he continued with a torrent of whys that shot demandingly out of his mouth, which Lily simply remained quiet to. She knew that James thought that persistency would wear down the redhead, and continued his rambles desperately.

Lily pushed the cup of milk into James' hands again. It sloshed tigerishly (1) in the mug, and most of it landed onto the carpet. For once, Lily ignored the stain purposely and stared James into the eyes determinedly.

"Honey in it or not, _drink the damn milk_! I can't stand any more of this whining, James! Do you expect Sirius to just come running back to you? He suspects that this is an assignment from the Ministry or a similar situation – his trust cannot be regained like your dentures can! It takes time, James, and you surely cannot expect Sirius to gain a sudden burst of faith and belief that you have changed – if you want something miraculous to happen you have to make it happen!"

James remained silent. "I could not win at this, Lily."

Lily brushed her crimson curls from her shoulder, "Then you are a quitter, James," she said with finality, "and quitters make excuses. Winners make things happen," there was a tense silence until Lily broke it sharply by a curt sigh, "I don't know why I thought that I could take down the Ministry with a man who doesn't even try."

Lily made to turn back to bedroom, but James sprang from the couch like a grasshopper returning to life, grabbing her arms firmly.

"Lily, wait, I didn't mean it like that–"

Lily yanked her arm away, "I _know_ what you meant, James," she said coldly, "I'll just take down the Ministry myself," heatedly she turned her back to James, "unless you change your mind, you have forty-eight hours to move out of _my_ house. Come back when you've grown up."

---

Sirius felt like he was reading a particularly difficult book of _Finding Waldo._ He was convinced that Waldo was not even on the page, or even in the entire book. In fact, he was so doubtful that Sirius felt as though Waldo did not even exist. No wonder those young and annoying children were so short-tempered. They're given _Find Waldo_ books that seem to have no end. Like a three-piece puzzle with a part missing. What the hell was the point?

Where in the world was Remus Lupin?

---

James wasn't sure who he needed to apologize to more, Lily or Sirius. He would either lose his friend for good or lose his living situation for good. And while he certainly did not want to be homeless, James did not want to be friendless either.

It seemed to be a lose-lose situation. With an exasperated sigh, James rubbed at his temples, hoping to stimulate his mind to start coming up with ideas to apologize grandly to both the most gorgeous woman in the world and the best friend in the world at the same time.

He was lost.

---

First thing Sirius decided that he was definitely not staying in the hotel. He slept one more night in the grimy room, but it found it hard for him to leave in the morning. He was clinging to the pillow that Remus' light brown used to lay upon softly, his expression innocent as he slept on with his lower lip sticking out. Sirius used to remember the mornings that he woke up first, and instead of doing something productive; he stared fixedly at Remus as though there was nothing else in the world besides the unfairly harmed creature before him…

The pillow he clung to smelled just like Remus, and with every hearty sniff, he felt like he was loosing some of his scent, just like he was loosing Remus with every minute he wasted in the hotel room.

That finally made Sirius drag himself out of bed, pack his things together and take off.

Despite the fact that this was against his better judgement, and horribly inappropriate of him, Sirius knew that he had to return to James.

It was the only person who might still give him a chance.

---

James was lying in the driveway of Lily's well-kept lawn and freshly colorful flowers, limbs akimbo on the cement. He stared at the moving clouds as though they would give him some sort of inspiration, but none came.

Did he just _naturally_ make mistakes? Was there an immovable and terribly unfortunate gene stuck inside his chromosomes that simply could not be removed that forced his to mess up every time he had something great in his hands?

He thought that even through all of his roughness, Sirius would be there to console there.

But even he was gone.

_Everyone makes mistakes_, James told himself firmly,_ but the trick they know is that they do them when no one is looking. _

James scanned the skyline, his eyes coming to level with a group of equally boring houses, all gray and conservative. The sun shone on the roofs, glinting on them beautiful.

It was a nice day.

But not for James.

His eyes scoured the horizon further leftways, and almost thought his pupils were pulling another mistake as he saw a distant figure pop into a rose bush ungracefully. The shadow-eclipsed figure brushed himself off and continued down the sidewalk but with less jaunty swing in his step now.

It was only when one of the sun's rays splayed itself straight onto the stranger's face that James noticed the familiar gray eyes – silver in the sun's shine – and sleek black hair.

James was mute for a few breathless seconds where he swore that time had stopped, and next thing he knew was that he was scrambling up from the cement and darting towards his friend.

And despite the fact that he had tripped onto a large rock on the way and almost fallen face-flat on the street, nothing stopped him from tearing across the neighborhood and lunging onto the unsuspecting man in a ferocious tackle.

Sirius was home.

_AN_: Next chapter will up soon, expect an update over the weekend!

Now, the ultimate answer for the ending. Drumroll, please.

Not surprisingly, if you scan over the reviews lightly, the majority of you wanted a happy ending while a few people were undecided or for a sad ending. You can still vote, but unless a group of reviewers suddenly wants to strike out against the happiness, we will be getting a sweet ending!

(1)_ Tigerishly_ is a word that is correct by dictionary . com, but Microsoft Word calls it incorrect. Meh.


	16. Chapter 16

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Harry Potter.

The Minister was not happy.

With a ragged and too-busy-for-all-this-shit sigh, he ran a wrinkly hand through his graying and unruly hair.

He should have _secretaries_ for dealing with things like this.

The slaying business was not going well.

It had started slowly, when Marlene McKinnon had gently told the Minister that she had been offered a job as a Healer at Hogwarts and therefore had to leave her job as a slayer.

It had been a small removal, but the Minister felt remorse for it greatly. Marlene had brought in over ten vampires weekly, mostly because her persuading powers were used to great extent when she would soothingly convince the vampires that they were going someplace where they would fit in and wouldn't be hunted – it worked extremely well and the Minster could never figure out her trick. It was upsetting, but there were still plenty of slayers dutifully bringing in filthy half-breeds.

It had become a bit harder when two slayers, Dorcas Meadowes and Emmeline Vance (_AN:_ They are both REAL people, they are not made up characters. Check the hp-lexicon if you don't believe me!) had been brutally killed by a pack of trolls in the mountains. The Minister had attended the funeral and even made a personal speech himself that he thought was very heart-warming, and even consoled some weeping mothers during the funeral luncheon. It was a loss, but the Minister had doubted if Emmeline and Dorcas had ever really made a contribution to the slaying business.

It had become an unfortunate pattern when James Potter had informed the Minister that Sirius Black was keeping a werewolf in the boiler room at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place and told a series of lies to the Minister about James' well-being. Once a liar, always a liar, the Minister had always said, so he was glad to get rid of Sirius, whose work had been plummeting downwards lately anyway.

The chain continued when Edgar Bones had burst into his office on a cloudy afternoon, the Minister casually reading a two-year old edition of the Daily Prophet. Edgar had made quite a fuss, flailing his arms and demanding proof for all of the staff shortness.

"Is it the money? Is that why they all quit?" he had demanded with flaring nostrils, "I want more money!"

After the Minister had called his secretary to remove Edgar, he had fired two days later with a non-too-apologetic letter. That again, had not been too much of a loss, but it had started to become a serious problem when Sturgis Podmore had confronted the Minister about issue with all of the slayers quitting, and at this point the Minister could no longer cook up alibis that made the situation seem miniscule to it's actually importance. Sturgis had kindly explained after the Minister had made several unorthodox excuses as to why there were so many departures of staff members that the business was getting dull and obviously he wasn't the only one to have thought so.

That had been trouble. Sturgis had been a wonderful slayer that never failed to perform, bringing in a werewolf on a Monday and a giant on Friday. He had great range on what he could slay and bring in uninjured.

It had been then that the Minister had heard of the Lupin and Black sighting from his secretary, and sent Potter out to look for them with a few innocent bribes. After a few hours when Potter had not returned, the Minister decided to take matters into his own hands. Today, _he_ would be the one on the front cover of all of the newspapers in town.

He had left his office a bit too smugly, and returned with a broken wand, no werewolves, and another staff member that he would expect to quit soon. He was starting to believe that there was seriously bad magic behind all of this quitting business, especially as he sat tight-lipped in his chair with Caradoc Dearborn beating around the bush.

He was going to quit, the Minister could see it now.

"I just don't see what all of this hush hush is about." Caradoc said with a wordless shrug, "Lots of people have been quitting, and I know that you are trying to cover it all up. Why, Minister? Is there some sort of dark secret in this business?"

The Minister knew from painful personal experience that Caradoc was a terrible gossip. Unless he wanted all of his staff members down the drain within the week, he needed to make sure that Caradoc knew that there was nothing wrong with the slaying career.

With a sweet and sugarcoated smile, the Minister gently interlaced his fingers together on the desk. He peered down at Caradoc over his thin glasses. "Absolutely nothing, Mr. Dearborn," he confirmed, "I can assure you, all of the staff members that are no longer with us had left this job because they did not believe it was their forte."

Caradoc wrinkled his eyebrows thoughtfully, caressing his chin fondly. "Hmm," he contemplated. The Minister encouragingly flashed him an eerie smile, "then I hope you won't consider this quitting when I tell you that I just don't think that slaying is my forte. I'm moving on to brighter pastures."

The smile slid off the elder man's face as Caradoc stood up briskly, holding his hand. The Minister shook it feebly.

"Oh, but Mr. Dearborn–"

"No, really, it's all right." Caradoc said airily, "Thank you for the experience, Minister!" and with that, he floated out of the door and bid him a cheerful goodbye.

The Minister knew exactly what was going on. His secretary had told him a week ago.

"Did you hear?" she had whispered excitedly, sticking her head into his office and arranging her glasses with a smile that only meant she had gotten gossip for the two of them, "I heard from the hallways that Miss Lily Evans has been starting a petition! She's been convincing slayers to quit their jobs! Apparently Mr. Dearborn is quitting soon!" and with a grin that was much more directed to the gossip part of the news that the actual information itself, she giggled giddily and disappeared again suddenly.

Lily Evans would definitely be getting a visit soon from him.

---

Remus Lupin was back to being low-key in society.

While he may not have returned to the forest, he was no longer strutting through Diagon Alley and introducing himself to wandmakers with Sirius. He was very satisfied and taken with a small apartment – little enough to be a closet in Grimmauld Place, but it was not in a very popular area, and that was all that was on his mind.

There wasn't a day that went by that Sirius didn't linger in his mind. As much as he missed the man and knew inside that with every day passing another part of his heart was breaking into a thousand pieces and landing in Sirius' hands, he knew he had made the right decision. He had caused enough trouble for Sirius; his job had been lost and his friend had become history when Remus had come along, and he firmly believed that he would be able to reclaim all that now.

As much as he wanted to trust Sirius, he still could not put all of his faith into him. As a matter of fact, he expected Sirius to find him again as a slayer, just to murder him in the most painful way possible. Before Sirius, he had forgotten how to love, and that was possibly why he had been so vulnerable to falling in love with the ex-slayer. It was convenient, it was new, it was amazing.

But it was all over.

He waited frightfully through the days for Sirius or James to appear in the slightly weathered street outside of his one-room apartment, but no one ever crossed ways in this abandoned alley.

Until one day, he woke up, and two wands were pointed straight at his chest.

"We've been looking for you," an icy voice said, and Remus felt himself scramble up the wall to get to eye level with his killers.

"My name," the other voice said, dark and oily, "is Snape. And this is Malfoy."

---

Sirius felt himself being thrown onto the ground with a force strong enough to blast a wall to smithereens.

Or at least, that's what it felt like.

Sirius yelped out of shock. Someone else yelped out of glee. It was a familiar voice.

It was James.

Or a moment, Sirius thought that James was tackling him to the ground to strangle him, kill him, or do something else considerably nasty. But it was then that James was smiling straight into Sirius' eyes that he saw something that _wasn't_ menace, but actually hope and exuberance.

"James?!" Sirius said in surprise.

"Sirius!" James shouted back, and it was then that they both fell onto the cement. With a defeated 'oof' both of them groaned in pain before they gently starting nursing their backs and knees.

And then it was that they both met each other's eyes and started laughing, before embracing the other in a terribly belated greeting.

"The – the article–" Sirius began breathlessly, patting James' shoulder before pulling away from their hug. "Did you really mean that?"

James grinned. "Of course I did!" he said loudly, "Lily actually was the one who started talking some sense into me and told me to figure out a way to get you back – actually, the night you left, I went to Grimmauld Place to apologize after I broke the Minister's wand, but you had already left with – hey, wait a minute, where's Lupin?"

The fun seemed to have been sucked out of their meeting suddenly. "He – he, uh – he thought it would be better if we…" Sirius sighed, "he couldn't trust me."

James slowly got off from the street, still rubbing at his back as Sirius did the same. He sighed.

"Man – I'm, I'm really sorry, Sirius–"

"It's not your fault, James." Sirius brushed off, waving a lofty hand but turning his head away from view. James winced, a concerned look plastered onto his face as he stood up from the pavement. Sirius did the same, giving a quiet sob that was not heard to James. Sirius hurriedly straightened himself up, clapping James on the shoulder and walking towards the sidewalk.

"So you're with Lily…?" he began, attempting to lighten up the conversation. James furrowed his eyebrows.

"I… not really," he said, analyzing his words carefully, "she… we got into a fight about if I've grown up at all and if I have enough belief in anything to make stuff happen."

Sirius nodded, "I'm sorry, James," he began, "but I just have to ask. Why the hell did you betray me to the Minister?"

James stared at the sidewalk, the tips of his ears turning to an unflattering crimson. "I was jealous of Lupin because he had replaced me as the best friend… that was all," he turned his gaze over to Sirius, "I don't work with the Ministry anymore. I meant what I said in that newspaper."

"I – I'm glad, James," Sirius said with a smile, before putting his arm around James' shoulder, "Now let's get our mates back."

---

"You know what we're here for, obviously," Malfoy drawled, his eyes boring into Remus'.

Remus nodded, trying to remain calm. "To kill me, I suppose," Remus said casually.

Snape smirked, "You're right."

"How did you find me?"

Malfoy brandished a wrinkled flyer with long and pale fingers. Fingernails dug into the paper and created creases in the flyer.

"The Minister was not satisfied with how you departed in the Ministry not to long ago. An escaped werewolf was not going to disappear into the secrets of the Ministry. There are wanted posters all over Diagon Alley."

Remus swallowed, and blinked slowly.

He wanted Sirius by his side.

_AN_: All of the people used in the chapter that quit from the Ministry are Order of the Phoenix members. They're all real!

Anyway, we're still diving towards a happy ending here. And, quite sadly, this story is going to end soon. –sniffle– But we still have a few chapters to go:D


	17. Chapter 17

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Harry Potter.

The Minister rapped politely on the door, straightening out the gray collar on his cloak and tapping his heel impatiently. He hummed a little, clicking his tongue, before a redhead opened the door, and the welcoming smile that had been previously on her face slid off as fast as a bar of soap sliding from a countertop. She frowned disapprovingly down upon the Minister, despite the fact that he was a fair few inches taller.

The Minister's mouth fell open in surprise. He was not aware of the fact that _this_ was Lily Evans.

He remembered her from not too long ago, when she had told him off for trespassing in her property in the middle of the night and come to James' aid.

The Minister hurriedly closed his mouth, and a giving a courteous nod to Lily. He smiled sinisterly.

"Are you Lily Evans?" he did not have to ask, but it was only respectful and if he wanted to get through his second sentence without being cussed at or slapped, he needed lots and lots of courtesy.

"Yes," Lily replied coldly, blocking the doorway from him entering with a long arm. She made it terribly obvious as well, simply to show the Minister that he was not welcome in her house. Far from it. "If you've come to persuade me to become a slayer, you've got the wrong girl."

The Minister shook his head, "No, no, I simply want to ask you a few questions."

Lily hesitated, swaying on her feet and furrowing her eyebrows suspiciously. After a long, skeptical glare at the Minister, she stepped aside and reluctantly said: "All right." And when he made to touch the exquisite vase on the end table, Lily sharply said:

"And don't touch anything."

The Minister nodded carefully, "Ah, yes," he said embarrassingly, rubbing at his temples. He sat down gently at the couch, and made sure to not brush against the meticulously smooth pillows and sit at the end of the cushions.

Lily sat down across from him, raising her eyebrows expectantly. Coldly, she crossed her arms and impatiently hurried him on. "Yes, yes?" she snapped demandingly, "you came here for a reason, did you not?"

The Minister nodded hastily. "Indeed," he hurriedly got to the point, "I have been told, Lily–"

"_Miss Evans_," Lily corrected coldly, and the Minister nodded along hurriedly.

"Right, Miss Evans. I have been told that you've been convincing my staff of slayers to quit their jobs. I've lost some pretty important slayers – Caradoc Dearborn, Sturgis Podmore, even Emmeline Vance–"

Lily feigned concern, running a hand through her hair, "Ohh," she pretended worriedly, "what a shame." She rolled her eyes.

The Minister nodded along, "Well, the point is that I simply want to clear up if you've been the root of all of this staff departures…?" he inquired hopefully, his voice trailing off.

Lily nodded smugly, "I am the root of the staff departures, Minister," she said bitterly, "and now that we've cleared that up can you leave?"

The Minister pleadingly shook his head, "Not yet, Miss Evans, please…?" he begged and received a tut from Lily but nevertheless was not shooed from the room. He sighed in relief, "well… if you are the root of all this, could I ask you to kindly stop doing so…? My staff is getting – uh – very limited, Miss Evans."

Lily smiled sweetly, "You could ask," she said, "but I won't."

The Minister mustered his strength together to control his frustration, "And why not, Miss Evans?" he asked shakily.

Lily rubbed at her knee casually, "Because I don't like your business, Minister," she said bluntly, "killing werewolves and vampires and trolls just because they're a little different from you is wrong and cruel. It's prejudice, and never in a million years did I ever expect such a nasty business to form in the Ministry. Such bigotry!"

The Minister licked his lips, preparing speech, but Lily noticed this and plunged on recklessly.

"How would you like it if I locked you up in Azkaban simply because you're older than I am? You're different, and that's a flaw – or at least it is to the Ministry!" Lily shouted.

The Ministry hastily held up a hand. "Now wait a moment!" he said reproachfully, "I could never avoid growing older!"

Lily smiled, seeing that the Minister had hit a nerve she had been waiting to be pushed, "Exactly, Minister. Do you think werewolves and vampires choose to be the way they are? They cannot avoid their natural selves."

The Minister loosened his bowtie uneasily. He was running out of debates to keep this dangerous girl at bay. He mopped at his brow with his flowered handkerchief. "Anyway, Miss Evans, the whole point of my visit is really quite simple. Think about it this way! What if you were in my position, hmm? And our business is falling apart because all of our members are quitting!"

Lily grinned again. "Now, really, Minister, that isn't any of my problem. I don't _force_ your staff to quit. I don't put them under any potions or curses. All I do is encourage them to leave the Ministry, and the rest is all their own decision. And it is my right of speech, to share my opinion with everyone I care to."

The Minister nodded. "I see this, Miss Evans, but it is ruining the slaying business–"

Lily got up from the chair, and motioned the Minister to do the same. He hastily did so. "Exactly, Minister."

---

Lily rifled through some of the Ministry's papers in her hands deftly, licking her thumb to flick through them faster. She let out a cry of satisfaction as she reached the page she had been looking for. Eagerly, she smirked at the paper as her eyes zipped down the list of names upon it.

How she had gotten her hands upon it, she was not quite sure. When James had still been working for the Ministry, he had gotten a list of his coworkers for references and inquires, and he had given it to Lily for help in bringing down the Ministry.

Lily bit at her bottom lip in excitement, checking off names with a sharp pen. She ran it down the names to find the ones she had yet to reach, and she was determined to find all of them.

She shot up from the couch and tucked the paper into her pocket, grabbing her jacket and heading out the door with a firm confidence that shot off of her.

---

The Minister was deplorable after his visit with Lily Evans. Not only did she admit to persuading workers to quit their jobs, but she also refused to stop doing so. And frankly, the Minister could say no more when she fairly brought up the point that she was not forcing anybody to leave their jobs and she had the freedom of speech to say whatever she wanted.

With a rough sigh, he realized that the only thing he could do was get to the handful of slayers he had left and convince them to stay before Lily could convince them to leave.

This would be a cat and mouse game.

---

Lily was welcomed into the house of Hestia Jones, a black-haired woman with plump cheeks that always carried a tint of rosy color to them. Lily introduced herself and Hestia had invited her in most gratuitously. Lily had waited at the dainty little table with a flowered tablecloth while Hestia made tea.

"Here you go, darling," Hestia cooed, sliding a teacup across the tablecloth and smiling cheerfully. She plopped herself into a chair and sipped delicately at the cup.

"Thank you, Miss Jones," Lily began appreciatively, and stirred at the tea, "obviously, you must know why I'm here."

Hestia shook her head cluelessly, "No," she confessed truthfully, "something about the Ministry is what you said, right?"

Lily nodded, licking the spoon from the tea, "Exactly, Miss Jones," she started, "let me start by being honest. I find it terribly hard to believe that such a sweet women such as you is a slayer!"

Hestia giggled, nodding, "Yes, yes, I am a harmful creature, in all honesty. It pains me to slay innocent victims but it brings in money… I've tried teaching and healing and the pay was oh so poor." She crooned with a sigh.

Lily smiled to herself. This visit would be very easy for her.

The redhead sympathetically grabbed Hestia's chubby hand. "Miss Jones, what would you say if I told you that you could work in Diagon Alley?" with a smile, she took a flyer out of her coat pocket and smoothed it out on the tabletop. She slid it toward the black-haired woman.

Hestia was immediately interested. Perking up her eyebrows, she sat up in her seat and examined the advertisement. "Hmm…" she contemplated, "working in Diagon Alley? However did you get hold of this piece of luck, dear?" Hestia asked with wide eyes.

Lily smiled. "I took it to my behalf to take down some advertisements to persuade some slayers to take a different route in careers…" she said innocently. Suggestively, she leant over the table and pointed to the weekly wage printed delicately at the bottom of the flyer. She smiled, "look at that, Miss Jones. Hefty pay, really, don't you think?"

Miss Jones looked thoroughly pleased as she handed the flyer back. "Yes, yes, you have made quite a point, dear. Quitting seems like a lovely idea!" with a grin, she patted Lily's hand appreciatively before they hugged goodbye.

---

"No, Minister, I don't think I really want to come back to the slaying business. See here, Minister? A really lovely lady – Lily Evans was her name, Minister – gave me this flyer from Diagon Alley? I'm so eager to start some new work."

The Minister grimly nodded at Hestia Jones' cheerful face. Giggling, she sprinkled a spoonful of sugar into her tea.

"I see," the Minister said, readjusting his glasses stiffly. He coughed audibly, "but Miss Jones, don't you think slaying would ultimately give you more satisfaction? What about the end of the year bonus?" he tried hopelessly, flashing a desperate smile to Hestia. She shook her head firmly.

"Oh, I couldn't. I'm not a killer, Minister! I never was at heart."

The Minister curtly checked his watch. He may have been too late with Hestia Jones, but there were more staff members he could get to first.

Lily Evans could not be in a handful of places at once.

---

Lily's third house was the one of Benjy Fenwick, a stout little man with a terribly unattractive nose. After some persuading, he too had welcomed Lily into the dining room. There had been no tea, but there had been layer cake.

Benjy dived his fork into the depths of his cake slice, plunging it into his mouth hurriedly, as if someone would steal his bite.

Lily smiled at him, licking neatly at her fork. She set it down, folding her hands together seriously.

"Now, Mr. Fenwick," she began professionally, "you _do_ know why I'm here, don't you?"

Benjy nodded. "Indeed, Miss Evans," he admitted, "who has not heard of all of havoc you had wreaked at the Ministry?" he chuckled a little.

Lily grinned, "Yes. Most people _have_ heard. Even the Minister himself," she plunged on with her monologue, "So you must know that I'm going to ask you to consider leaving your job?"

Benjy nodded again, more feverishly this time. He hurriedly shook a hand at Lily in refusal. "I can't, Miss Evans!" he said resolutely, "the rent here, it is very demanding. The Minister is very generous with his pay, and I cannot think of any other job that would let me pay my rent with money left to spare."

Lily smiled. This was the negotiating part she was good at. "What are you interested in, Mr. Fenwick? Surely it cannot be such a vile thing such as slaying."

Benjy shook his head sadly. "No, no…" he said morosely, "I'm really quite more interested in banking."

The redheaded woman grinned excitedly, "Say no more, Mr. Fenwick!" she said hastily, taking the stack of Diagon Alley advertisements from her pocket. She rifled through them swiftly before retrieving one with the Gringotts emblem in the corner.

Benjy was overjoyed to the flyer. "Gringotts is hiring? Why, this is simply fabulous!" he vigorously shook hands with Lily before pouring over the poster for Gringotts.

Lily smiled to herself, rifling through more of the flyers as soon as she noticed Benjy thoroughly engrossed in the advertisement.

But she stopped suddenly as one flyer in particular caught her eye – one she had not recalled tearing down (but then again, she had taken almost every advertisement on in a pillar in Diagon Alley).

It was a wanted poster, with the picture of a scarred but in general calm man. On the bottom the words _Remus Lupin_ were stamped along with a reward price.

Lily gasped, before rushing out of Benjy Fenwick's house to find James.

---

James and Sirius were having a jolly reunion on the sidewalk, laughing about the times James had with Lily and the times Sirius had had with Remus that were all memorable and peculiar.

"I really wish I knew where he was."

James nodded consolingly. "He can't have gone far."

"No, no, he _definitely_ went far," Sirius assured him, "I taught him how to apparate."

James gasped, his mouth agape. "How the hell did you do that?" he asked marvelously.

Sirius feebly waved his hand about in an indescribable motion, "Hoop." He said shortly. James nodded.

"Pretty amazing, man–"

But he was interrupted; because it was then that Lily came flying down the street, stopping dead with a slight stagger when she noticed Sirius.

"_Sirius?_" she said incredulously, her eyes wide. She kept on darting down the street. "Sirius! James! He's been spotted!"

Lily stumbled as she reached the sidewalk, kneeling down to come to eye level with the two dark-haired men. She breathlessly brushed back her windswept hair, panting.

"What is it?!" James demanded automatically. Sirius raised his eyebrows curiously.

Lily brandished the flyer with a firm grip, but Sirius ripped it out of her hands.

"_The Minister calls this beast a highly dangerous werewolf that has escaped from the Ministry. Lupin was spotted in Diagon Alley recently. If found, the Ministry establishes a reward._" Sirius read from the flyer, eyes narrowed, "Fuck! How the hell can they call Remus a beast? We have to find him, James! They said they saw him in Diagon Alley!"

"Yes, but he could have gone anywhere–" James tried to reason logically.

"He's probably in the apartments nearby!" Lily said helpfully. "He could be there!"

"But what if one of the slayers has already found him…?" James said, tugging at Sirius' sleeve. Sirius shook him off.

"Let's do it!" he said firmly, standing up with an unstoppable vigor. Lily nodded, staring at James imploringly.

"Well?" she snapped, "aren't you coming?"

---

"I feel like such a fool," James complained with a roll of the eyes. He stuffed his hands into his pockets, shivering.

Lily, Sirius, and James walked along the abandoned alleyway leading to the rarely ever occupied. It was a vacant housing department, mostly because of it's poor plumbing and heating.

Lily stiffly walked behind Sirius, who was running ahead with haste.

"C'mon!" he shouted over his shoulder, "we don't have time to dilly dally! Let's move it, move it!"

"He's not here, Sirius!" James retorted grimly, staring at the darkening sky. The clouds rumbled from ahead. "It's going to rain." He murmured.

Sirius waved a lofty hand behind him. "For all I know, he's just yards away from me! Where are those damn apartments?! _LILY?_"

Lily pointed cooperatively towards the left. Sirius ran furiously in that direction.

James grumbled broodingly next to the redhead. "Why did you have to show him that flyer, Lily?"

Lily looked at him coldly. "Because I believe in finding your lost love, James." She scoffed bitterly, quickening her pace.

"I can't do anything right, can I?" James asked exasperatedly, throwing his arms up into the air with a strangled cry.

"James, if you want to go home, do it!"

James flushed. "I don't really… really have a home to go to," he mumbled shamefacedly.

Sirius laughed. "Then I guess you're stuck with us until we're done!"

The other man adjusted his glasses with a defeated sigh. "Fine." He said, and jogged to keep up with Lily and Sirius.

Lily grabbed Sirius' shoulder to stop him from running. "They should be in that alley," she directed, pointing right. Sirius nodded and dashed forward, dragging Lily with him.

"Are you coming or not, James?"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" James panted from the back, running to keep up. "Slow down!"

Sirius heeded him no attention to the shouting James in the back. His black locks whipping around his face and his fingers turning nimble from the cold night, Sirius felt his teeth starting to chatter. Thunder was heard distantly from far off.

"It's going to rain, can't we just turn back?" James pleaded. Sirius shook his head.

"A little rain isn't going to stop me!"

James moaned. "What about if it's _freezing_ rain, Sirius?" he begged, but Sirius scoffed.

"We've have Quidditch matches worse that this, James," he said, and James had to agree with him. Half-heartedly, he jogged a bit further to reach Lily and Sirius.

They skidded to a stop and James resorted to a trot when they reached the apartments, which consisted of a weathered building with crooked bricks glued upon it. Lily frowned at its rough exterior.

"It's in pretty bad shape," she commented, running her hand along the dirty wall. Sirius nodded.

"Must not be nice to live to here." Sirius muttered, shaking his head.

"Open the door, Sirius." James pushed, his breathing coming out in white puffs. It was starting to drizzle.

Sirius reached to open it.

"Fuck!" James ejaculated furiously, "It's raining!" he shoved Sirius' shoulder. "Just open that damn door so we can get inside!"

Sirius nodded, but they were stopped when it opened seemingly by itself, when they were met with the cold and bitter faces of Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy.

"Fuck." James said again, breathing out heavily.

_AN_: I thought you all might enjoy a fast update! I promise puppy love in the next chapter. But sadly, this story is slowly coming to a close. I predict two to three more chapters. Remember, though, that you can still vote for a happy or sad ending.

I'd also like to say that Hestia Jones and Benjy Fenwick are also real characters, and they're both members of the Order of the Phoenix. Also, Hestia Jones' appearance in the books is described as a 'pink-cheeked, black haired woman' so that is actually what I went after.

Lastly, isn't it sort of funny that in canon, Sirius is the one the Ministry is looking for and has wanted posters up for, and here, Remus is the one in his position? –giggles–

I love you all:D


	18. Chapter 18

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Harry Potter.

Before Sirius or James could even do anything besides gape and yell their voices hoarse at the epitome of slaying in front of them (also known as Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape), Lily had whipped her wand out of her pocket and knocked Sirius out of the way. Threateningly, she pointed it down the throat of Malfoy, switching it defensively to Snape a second later.

"Where the hell are you keeping him?!" she barked.

Malfoy reached for his wand. So did Snape.

Two voices screamed _Expelliarmus_ and both Lily's and Malfoy's wand was sent flying out of their grips. James caught Lily's wand deftly, handing it back to the windswept redhead.

"Where's my wand?" Malfoy demanded of Lily, who shrugged innocently. Narrowing her eyes, she shoved her wand farther into his chest.

"Well, well, well," Snape's sticky voice drawled, "you teamed up with Lily, then?"

James crossed his arms. Lily sent Snape a look of condescension.

"Yes, unluckily for you!" Sirius snapped, his voice coming back to his throat. It seemed to have wandered off the moment it saw the two Faces Of Doom and Destruction, only to slow find it's way back. Sirius coughed in what he hoped was a manly way. "Where's the werewolf?"

"Right!" Lily said, her fingers whitening around the sturdy hold she had on her wand. "Lupin! Hand him over, boys!"

Snape riveted his wand's aim over to Lily with gelidness. "If you just walk away with no harm, things won't turn ugly–"

"OH YES THEY WILL!" Sirius roared, and brandished his wands tempestuously at Snape's deathly pale face.

"Do you all even need me here?" James said uselessly from the back, squinting slightly as rain splattered onto his glasses. "Can we please just move this fight inside?"

No one paid any attention to James and his pleas.

"I have a mission and I damn right will accomplish it, and I don't care if I have to kill you all!" Sirius threatened recklessly.

"Sirius, _no_!" Lily intervened, and laid a hand on his wrist to stop him from hexing the two men in front of them into oblivion. "You could get killed for that!"

Lucius chuckled manically, a hint of excitement balancing on his laugh. "Let him do it, Evans," he said, "I'd love to see him get stuck into Azkaban."

"But you wouldn't!" James reasoned logically from the back, shaking his head. "You'd be dead, you dunderhead!"

Lucius glared. Lily elbowed James sharply.

"Shut the fuck up, James, we don't need your snide comments!" she admonished shortly.

"Hey! I'm supporting you, not them!" James cried acrimoniously, his voice indignant.

"You're_ whipped_, Potter." Lucius commented. Lily dug her wand into his skin roughly, pressing with more force.

"Just because he isn't supposed to talk doesn't mean you _can_, Malfoy!" Lily warned precariously.

"Someone's getting heated."

"No, someone's getting _killed_." Sirius corrected.

"Someone's getting wet!" James whined, tapping his feet. He shielded his eyes from the rain, which was beginning to get heavier.

"Suck it up and be a man, Potter." Snape scoffed. James sneered.

"Believe me, Snape, it's already sucked up," James grumbled, murmuring furious nothings into the air with the interception of a few curse words.

Sirius was getting impatient. "Where's the werewolf?"

"Which werewolf?" Lucius said loftily.

James sighed. "Why do I have a feeling we're going to be here for a while?" he shook his head querulously.

"Stop_ bitching_, James!" Lily ordered waspishly.

"Ooh, lover's quarrel?" Snape mocked teasingly.

"No more games!" Sirius growled. Red sparks flew out of his wand warningly. Snape and Malfoy took a step back.

"Can we please just go inside?" James whined, his tone eristic.

"Fine!" the redhead complied gruffly, and pushed both Snape and Malfoy into the apartment lobby with firm shoves. They stumbled backwards, rubbing at their chests.

"Easy, Evans!"

"No, not until Princess here is out of the rain." Sirius teased, flicking a thumb towards James while rolling his eyes.

"Hey! No one here is a Princess–" James retorted.

"No, but we all seem to be idiots." Lucius commented dryly, examining his fingernails casually.

Sirius brandished his wand again. "I swear, Malfoy, you won't even have your ears when I'm done with you if you don't show me where the werewolf is." He muttered darkly.

Lucius smirked. "Who says we haven't turned him in to the Ministry yet?"

"If you have, why the hell would you be _here_ at Lupin's apartment and not at the Ministry?" James noticed bitterly, raising a bushy eyebrow.

Sirius hovered over Malfoy dangerously. "YOU HAVE THREE SECONDS." He roared, his eyes flashing.

"Well, we–"

"TWO."

"I wouldn't be played games anymore, Snape." Lily advised.

"ONE. READY OR NOT, HERE COMES MY WAND." Sirius thundered, his face turning an unattractive shade of crimson.

"That sounds _wrong_, Sirius." James interjected, sharooshed.

"Someone has a one track mind." Malfoy teased.

Sirius was done beating around the bush. He grabbed Snape by the collar and dug his wand into his chest. "Last chance," he muttered cholericly, his face eclipsed halfway by the dark and shadowy apartment lobby. Thunder rolled on outside noisily like someone playing a particularly vociferous game of bowling.

"The Minister's going to be here soon! We alerted him!" Malfoy shouted.

Sirius made a sour face. "Oh, don't even mention that bastard to me." And with that, he bitterly punched Malfoy in the face. He toppled to the floor, clutching at his nose as blood ran through his fingers like ketchup from an overloaded burger. Sirius lazily flicked his wand.

"_Silencio_." He said, stepped over Malfoy, and let his eyes bore into Snape's.

"Get your wand out, James." Lily instructed grimly, her wand straight in Snape's face.

"I can't!" cried James, "don't you remember that Lupin took it from me?" when Lily shook her head suspiciously, James threw his hands up into the air. "For the love of god, does no one listen to me anymore?!"

Snape gave a quick glance to the moaning figure that was Malfoy before facing the tip of Sirius' wand coolly.

"Look in the closet upstairs, the one with all the cleaning supplies." He said, defeated. Lucius gave one loud moan of failure and discomfiture.

"Victory!" Sirius yelled out triumphantly, dashing to the stairs. He stopped suddenly, turning around. "Lily, make sure that Snape doesn't escape!"

He didn't have time to wait for a response as Sirius darted up the steps and looked furiously for a door without peeling gray numbers. He was panting when he found the door labeled:

_FOR MAID'S USE ONLY_

Sirius crashed through the door, and shouted out when he saw Remus laying in the corner, clearly unconscious. Upon short inspection, Sirius realized that Remus' worst injury was a set of bruises around his wrists, probably where Snape and Malfoy had held him.

"Remus…" he whispered, his hand coming up to stroke at the werewolf's cold cheek softly.

---

The Minister was in a bad mental state when he left the house of Elphias Doge. Thoroughly dispirited, he rearranged his askew glasses and let his limbs hang akimbo.

It was then that a chocolate-colored owl flew gracefully from the sky, hooted piercingly, and pecked sharply at the Minister's shoulder.

The Minister cursed, rubbing at his shoulder and examining the clean tear of his cloak. He sent a glower at the owl, who hooted again before dropping a letter into his hands. Curiously, the elder man suspiciously eyed the letter. A howler, perhaps? Maybe a formal declaration of quitting? If he never opened this, then no one ever quit and he never got a letter –

The owl bit into the Minister's hair, a clump of it in its beak as it flew away from his head. The Minister howled in pain before the owl clucked impatiently.

"Fine, I'll open it, you bloody bird!" he muttered, tearing it open without an ounce of caution. There was recognizable handwriting inside.

_Minister, we have werewolf. The alley behind Diagon Alley, with the apartments. Lupin's been hiding out. _

The Minister smiled sinisterly. "Good work, Lucius…" he murmured satisfyingly before he closed his eyes shut and apparated away with a pop.

---

Sirius shook Remus awake gently. The other man slurred and squirmed, squinting his eyes shut into a grimace and wriggling away from Sirius' tender shakings. He murmured something incoherent sleepily.

"Step away from the werewolf, Black." A monotone voice spoke smugly, and Sirius whipped around to see the Minister standing behind him, Lily and James behind held captive by the firm grip of Snape and by the tight hold of multiple ropes. Lily attempted to kick Snape's knee furiously, but it was fruitless.

Sirius remained motionless for a second before he stood up in surprise and brandished his wand.

"How long I've waited to catch you _and_ Lupin at the same time." The Minister murmured, a hint of insanity at his voice. "So sorry to break up this joyful reunion…"

"…S-Sirius?" a voice mumbled from the floor, and Sirius whipped around to see Remus struggling to stand up, "how did you get here? How did you find me?" he asked incredulously.

Sirius bent down, pulling the werewolf up with a strong arm.

"I guess this is a final battle, isn't it, Minister?" Sirius mentioned, staring bitterly at the tied up forms of his friends.

The Minister held up his arms, defensiveless. "You can kill me now, Black," he invited with a wry smile, "then maybe you'll wind up in Azkaban with your little half-breed friend. Or would you rather just like handing him over…?"

Sirius snarled. "I don't care if I'm in Azkaban as long as I'm with Remus!"

"Sirius, please, it's fine – you can let them take me–"

The black-haired man stopped, his eyes widening in surprise. He turned to face the werewolf. "Are you insane, Remus?!" he asked with consternation. He pointed a finger accusingly at the Ministry. "He'll kill you!"

"I know, Sirius." Remus said in a small voice.

"Don't you care?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"It's… it's better than being here, Sirius." there was a dull, lifeless tang to his voice. Sirius stared into the amber orbs that were Remus' eyes, watching tearing prickling at the corners of his eyes.

With one convincing swoop, Sirius had captured Remus' lips with his own, and it felt so _familiar_ and so _right_ and he didn't care that the Minister was watching him make out with their werewolf prey.

He faintly heard the Minister sharply draw in his breath in a gasp before he shouted out: "Are you _mad_, Black?!"

Remus' arms wound their way around Sirius' neck as though they naturally belonged there. Sirius heard Remus give a content sigh and let his body melt into their kiss. It was so perfect – only to be interrupted with the curt couch of the Minister.

Sirius pulled away breathlessly.

"I love you," he whispered so no one else heard, "isn't that enough reason to stay here with me?"

Remus stayed silent, tears forming at his eyes again.

"Let me prove it to you," Sirius said determinedly, "let me prove that I love you."

Malfoy leaned discreetly over to Snape. "You know, we could just kill both of them now…? They're totally not paying attention."

Snape looked uneasily from Malfoy to the Minister, who was thoroughly engrossed in the conversation between Remus and Sirius.

"I… I sort of think he wants to see what happens next." Snape admitted, tilting his head towards the Minister.

Sirius did not hear them. "_Please_, Remus. I _can_ prove that I love you. Let me."

Remus stared at the floor soundlessly. "You… you don't need to–"

The black-haired man gripped Remus' shoulders firmly, "No, no, let me," he closed his eyes in deep contemplation. "I'll… I'll help you in your transformations."

Remus shook his head. "You can't."

"I_can_," Sirius said, "I'll – I'll become an Animagus."

The entire group gasped. Snape sagged against Lily in shock.

"Did he just say that–?" Lucius began.

"Oh my god," Snape said bewilderingly.

"That is the sweetest thing I've seen a guy do." Lily breathed from the corner, her eyes lidded slightly. She sighed.

"Preposterous, Black! The Ministry would never give you a license!" the Minister babbled.

"What the hell is an Animagus?" James said cluelessly, shrugging and sending an oblivious and inept glance at Lily.

The Minister shuffled forward, elbowing Lucius and James out of the way. He pushed Sirius and Remus apart from their embrace.

"Now _wait_ a moment!" he snapped, his hair in furious disarray, "sorry to break up this little love fest, but we are still going to have murder Lupin! Now –_ let go of him, Black_ – let's get moving to the Ministry–"

"No!" Sirius yelled, attempting to yank Remus back. He hastily got his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at the Minister.

He turned his aim to James and Lily. With a skillful flick, the ropes were removed from their limbs and Lily broke free of her loose bonds automatically. Breathlessly, she got hold of her wand and held it at the Minister as well.

"I've always said I was going to kill you, Minister," Sirius growled. Remus tugged at his arm pleadingly, "and now I will."

The Minister whipped out his own wand and pointed it at James. He cackled. "You kill me, I kill your friend!" he sounded thoroughly pleased with himself for devising such a scheme at last minute. He always knew that improvisation was his thing.

James groaned. "Great," he said, "I do nothing and yet _I'm_ the bait." He put his hands on his hips crossly.

In a time of a nanosecond, the Minister had aimed his wand at Lily and flicked a wordless incantation. Lily cried out, falling to the floor. James sighed, kneeling next to the redhead.

"Dear lord, Lily doesn't mean anything to Sirius, only to _meee_!" he whined, shaking his fist ragingly at the Minister, "today is not my day."

Sirius was going to play this game too.

With a flick of the wand, Snape was too unconscious on the floor. James and Lucius exchanged nervous glances.

"I'll kill you."

"I'll kill you first." Sirius challenged, snarling.

"Oh no you don't," the Minister said, "_I'll_ kill you first."

"Then do it."

"You do it."

"Wuss!"

"Am not!"

No one had expected though, for Remus to bring out his own wand and send a curse flying slight into the Minister's gaping mouth.

For a moment, the expression of incredulous disbelief was plastered upon the man's face, before he keeled over with a loud _thud_.

James heaved Lily up from the floor.

"Pretty bloody brilliant, Lupin," he said with a smile, giving a feeble kick to the Minister's side. The man didn't move.

Remus smiled hesitantly, letting his gaze meet with Sirius' tentatively. The black-haired man was smiling faintly, before he wrapped his arms around Remus with a sigh.

"You're back." He whispered, hugging the werewolf tightly around the waist.

"Hello," Lucius said from the corner, a hand on a cloaked hip. "Have you forgotten I'm here?"

_AN:_ Is it wrong that I'm really going to miss writing the Minister when this story is done? I kind of like him, in a strange way. He was interesting, and he never really got a name... hehe. Anyway, I really enjoyed writing this chapter! James was so childish and so was the Minister and FTW PUPPY LOVE. :D But, be that as it may, probably only one more chapter. EXPECT A PLEASANT SURPRISE SOON IN THE STORY. I hope you all enjoyed the fast update:D


	19. Chapter 19

The Minister had been dragged out by Malfoy, who had Snape slung over his shoulder as though he was as light as a sack full of feathers, while James had carried Lily from the apartments honeymoon style.

Sirius slung his arm around Remus' waist loosely as they slowly exited the apartments. The rain had become heavy and persistent now, pitter-pattering lividly against the windows of the apartment.

"So… did you kill him?" Sirius inquired hesitantly.

"Of course not," Remus said indignantly, "he's just… out." He waved a hand half-heartedly to make his point.

Sirius lowered himself slightly, bestowing a soft kiss on Remus' temple. He hugged to werewolf to his side tightly.

"I love you," he murmured inaudibly, so no one else around them heard.

"Soo…" Lucius said conversationally from the back, "you two are together, right?"

"That's right," Sirius said grimly, looking coldly over his shoulder to give Lucius a piercing stare, "do you have a problem with that?"

"No." Lucius replied coolly, rearranging the Minister on his shoulder awkwardly. "You know, I could kill you right now. I am still a slayer."

James tutted.

"I'd like to see you try."

They had reached the door. Sirius opened the door cautiously as the rain poured in onto the carpet immediately. Sirius was hesitant to leaving the warm and dry safety of the roof, but Remus dragged him out with a firm hold on his wrist.

"I've always wanted to kiss in the rain," Remus mumbled wistfully, wrapping his arms around Sirius' neck suggestively.

Sirius grinned. "Oh yeah?" he murmured softly, and the werewolf nodded. Rain poured down on both their clothes, plastering the fabrics to their skin. Sirius gingerly smoothed a sopping strand of tawny hair from Remus' forehead before leaning forward to capture his lips with his own.

Immediately, both men were drawn into the connection. Melting into each other's soaking frames, Sirius let his hand caress gently down the werewolf's frail back. Remus securely wound his hands further around the black-haired man's neck, leaning himself upwards to get better access to the kiss. Sirius groaned greedily, flickering his tongue into the equation with an unspoken urgency. As if this would be the last time he would ever get to kiss Remus, he held onto him like he never wanted to let him go. When they finally separated, Remus' lips had turned to a puffy crimson color. He stared affectionately at Sirius' eyes, his face adoring.

"I love you." he said honestly, hugging Sirius forcefully, "I don't know why I ever didn't believe in you, Sirius."

"Aww." James crooned, heaving Lily up his arms to prevent her from sliding.

Sirius shot the man a look. "Now is not the time for sarcasm. Don't you see we're having a moment?" he growled, and turned back to Remus. Fondly, he gave him another short embrace before they walked off in the rain with James and Lucius in tow.

---

"How are things going with you and Lily, James?" Sirius mumbled distractedly, running his fingertips deftly along the spines of weathered books.

James sighed, rearranging on the couch cushions. "We're speaking. We're friends. But I don't think we're together anymore."

Sirius absently patted his friend's shoulder, thoroughly engrossed in the book titles. "I had _no_ idea we had this many books in Grimmauld Place." He muttered to himself, shaking his head incredulously.

"Are you listening to me, Sirius?" James snapped, "you may have Remus, but for _me_," he sniffed histrionically, "the love of life, my other half, my soul mate, my true love is _no longer with me_."

"No such thing as soul mates." Sirius dismissed gruffly, "just love, and as many times as you find it."

James pursed his lips. "Bullshit, Sirius," he said, "you only get one chance at love."

Sirius let out a cry of triumph, pulling a thick book from the top shelf. Dusting it off, he smiled at it satisfyingly with a nod and threw himself into a chair, rifling through the first few pages.

Remus trotted from the oak door, sending a wave towards James and nestling himself into Sirius' inviting lap. Sirius wrapped an arm around Remus' shoulders.

"Isn't this perfect? An entire book dedicated to becoming an Animagus."

Remus laughed. "I'm pretty sure this isn't the only book out there on becoming an Animagus, Sirius, but this one's fine."

Sirius nodded, flipping leisurely through the table of contents.

"This will be so exciting."

James sighed gruffly, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. "You two are_too bloody happy_," he snapped, "I _love_ Lily, and she – she's going to go find some other man!"

"JAMES POTTER, I AM GOING TO KILL YOU."

Lily stormed into the library, her hair resembling flames a bit more than usual. Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"How the hell did you get in here, Lily?" he asked perplexedly.

"The door's unlocked," she answered loftily to Sirius.

"No it's not!"

Lily snarled. "Fine! Maybe it's not, but now it is." She waved her wand airily, before rounding on James, who shrunk into the safety of the pillows. Sending a petrified glance at Sirius, James shiftily tried to hide into the shadows. Sirius burst into laughter, Remus following suit.

"Do you even know what you did?" Lily growled aggressively.

"I – no." James said in a small voice, his face morphed into one similar to a lost puppy. He smiled hesitantly.

"You are a _bastard_, James Potter!"

James flailed his arms at Sirius. "What did I do?" he demanded terrifyingly. Lily grabbed his shirt roughly.

"It's not that I'm not happy," Lily admitted, "but it was unexpected, and _I BLAME IT ALL ON YOU_."

"I'm sorry…?" James attempted feebly, tentatively smiling, "are you sick? Are you dying? Did I leave the toilet seat up? Did I not make the bed? Did I forget to cap the milk?"

Lily shook her head fiercely, her lips turning into a thin white line. Her head trembling slightly in fury, she screamed out:

"No. You just forgot to check with me if I wanted a baby, or not."

James' eyes widened. Sirius dropped his book. Remus gasped.

Shaking, James got up from the couch and gripped Lily's shoulders for support, oblivious to the fact that Lily was still raging. "You – y-you're pregnant?" he whispered, his mouth gaping and his eyes enlarged. He was catatonic to everything else around him.

Lily was biting her lip now. Not out of fury and wrath, but to attempt to stop the tears prickling at her eyes. Whether it was out of happiness or deplorableness, no one was sure. "Yes." she answered finally. James' mouth opened to a yell, but no sound came out except for a noise similar to a deflating balloon.

He stopped, his mouth closing to a tight purse. "Wait a minute," he said impassively, "it _is_ mine, right?"

"Yes, you prick!" Lily screamed, tears running down her cheeks now. She slapped her hand against James' chest as she shrieked her words.

James turned slowly to Remus and Sirius, his breathing rapid and his chest heaving. "I – I'm going to be a dad!" he shouted out, tears threatening to spill from his own eyes. He whipped himself towards Lily, hugging her closely to his body and lifting her up in celebration. James spun them both around unsteadily, resulting in an ungraceful fall to the awaiting couch cushions.

Remus prodded Sirius cautiously. "Um… what are we supposed to do now?" he asked.

Sirius shook his head. "I dunno. Either we let them scream and keep on reading or we congratulate them."

Remus wrinkled his brow up in doubt. "Sirius, I don't think they would listen to us. They look like eels on a slippery floor."

---

"Oh my fucking god," James gaped disbelievingly at a fresh copy of the Daily Prophet the next morning, dropping his spoon. It clattered into his teacup noisily, "the Minister got fired."

"What?!" Sirius exclaimed, rushing over to James to stare over his shoulder avidly. "You're right," he swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. "this is – this – REMUS!" he screamed up the stairs, so the werewolf came darting down the steps a second later.

"What is it?" he asked urgently as Sirius grabbed his hand and lead him hastily towards the newspaper.

"The Minister has been fired!"

After the initial shock had passed and Remus had finished reading the headline thirty-four times, he turned to Sirius, smiling like Cheshire cat, and planted a kiss onto his mouth surely.

"Things just couldn't be better." Remus said, his face brightening considerably as he snatched the newspaper from James' hands to read it thoroughly himself. Sirius put a hand on his wrist, lowering the paper.

"No, no, they definitely could be better."

"How?"

Sirius smiled softly. "In a couple months I'll be an Animagus. Don't you think that will be better than now?"

Remus laughed. "You don't make any sense," he said fondly, and wordlessly reached over to grab Sirius' hand, "but I love you anyway."

_AN_: Oh my god, and now it's over. –sniffles- I can't tell you how much I loved writing this. This story will be truly missed by me.

I've realized something about the Minister. If any you have ever watched_Ferris Bueller's Day Off_, tell me, don't you think that the Minister is a lot like Ed Rooney?

Anyway, good news for some of you. Now that Xenophobia is done, I can focus on Gentlemen Don't Do That. For those of you who have been waiting for an update for who knows how long, I hope you'll all be happy:D

And lastly, for those of you who didn't catch on, the big surprise was Lily being pregnant. –cheers- :D


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